The Aquemini
by Nieriel
Summary: The legend of the Aquemini, the death of the Goddesses, has been told for centuries. Zelda has named a human as the Aquemini but is Gemyn destined to save Hyrule from annihilation...or assist in the process?  REDONE  Please R&R! Set 3 years after OoT.
1. Prologue

Screams echoed down the long corridor. Loud, animalistic screams of gut-wrenching pain that made all those who could hear wish they could claw their eardrums out of their heads. The corridor had not been occupied by anyone in many years, but tonight it was filled with activity. A dreadful storm was raging outside; rain lashed against the walls in a fury, and wind howled through the trees. Lightning lit the sky in near-constant flashes, but even the booming of thunder could not drown out the pitiful screams coming from the room at the end of the hallway.

A small-framed, inconspicuous looking woman burst into the room just as a tiny infant's screams joined those of the woman in the bed. The mother lay there, panting, her spun-gold hair plastered to her forehead. Blood stained the sheets on the makeshift bed beneath her shaking legs. The midwife had a tiny red-and-white splotched infant on a table nearby, examining the child. It was a girl.

"Ah, Neylena," said the midwife. "You certainly took your sweet-arse time getting back 'ere. I 'ad to catch the babe all by meself." She scowled at her apprentice. "Take after the mistress, there," she said sternly. "Get some clean sheets on the bed afore I take me strap to you. 'Ow do you expect to ever become a midwife when you can't even stay put for five minutes when I tells you to, ay?"

"I apologize, Mistress Ferryl," Neylena said quietly. Her voice was soft and melodical, and did not grate at one's ears as Ferryl's did. Without another word, she moved towards the weeping mother. With gentle hands, she took a soft cloth and began to wipe the drying blood from her legs. When she was clean, Neylena pulled the soiled bedclothes from beneath her as best as she could without jostling the girl.

"Give 'er some 'Ochle to 'elp with the pain," Ferryl ordered, swaddling the infant in a thick blanket. "I've got to go tell 'em she's born the babe." She did not need to specify who "they" were; Neylena knew the arrangement as well as her mistress, having been privy to it since the moment the girl on the bed – Marica - had realized she was with child. Ferryl dipped her hands into a basin of warm water, rubbed them vigorously together and began drying them on her apron as she bustled out of the room.

Neylena moved towards the infant, who had ceased her wailing and now merely whimpered like a newborn kitten. She picked up the child and brought her towards her mother. "It's a girl," she said softly, placing her in Marica's arms.

Marica looked down at the infant with no real interest. She would not be keeping this baby; she knew that already. She did not want to. She was only sixteen, after all. Even if her father had allowed her to, she would not have. "Take her away," she sighed, pushing the baby back towards Neylena. "I'm tired."

"Don't you wish to name her, my Mistress?" Neylena asked uncertainly.

Marica paused, and looked down at the infant once more. Her eyes were open, staring at her mother with that curious look that only newborns can achieve. They were a dark velvety blue color, with flecks of grey, green, and lighter blue. They put one in mind of looking at stars on a clear night. "Gemyn," Marica said finally. "Her name is Gemyn."

**A/N: For anyone who has read this story before, I've been looking it over and decided to completely revamp it. I started this back in 2004, and since that time I've grown a lot as a writer, and now that I've fleshed out an entire plotline, I've found that my original story didn't really fit. It was getting to be too much of a hassle to re-do it chapter by chapter, so I deleted the old story and re-wrote the entire thing. Granted, large blurbs of it are exactly the same as the original, but I've changed Gemyn's origin story a LOT (because the original just seemed stupid, honestly) and some other things are different too. Anyway...I hope you like it, and would love to hear your thoughts! **

**xoxo**

**Melissa  
**


	2. I

**I**

Gemyn lay curled up in the hayloft, weeping bitterly. A black and white kitten sidled up to her, purring loudly, and pawed gently at her face. Gemyn pulled the kitten tightly to her, rubbing her face in its silky fur. The purring increased, and she felt herself comforted enough to cease her crying, and sit up. There was a window in the hayloft through which she could look out over the yard. She rested her elbows on the frame and dropped her chin onto her hands. The sun was setting behind the Snowhead Mountains, bathing the farmyard in a rosy pink light.

Her stomach contracted painfully, and she grimaced. She was only two or three hours into her punishment, and she would not be allowed to eat until the next morning. Still, at least she hadn't been whipped. She gnashed her teeth and scowled out across the yard.

It wasn't fair! Gemyn knew perfectly well that she _hadn't _done it. But Monique was jealous, she'd always been jealous - and so of course, when she needed a scapegoat to cover up her crimes, her eyes fell upon Gemyn. Little orphaned Gemyn whom everyone took for granted...no one would believe her. Gemyn had gone too long without having a champion to expect anyone to take her side now, now that Monique was accusing her of stealing her mother's ring. There hadn't been any point in protesting that Gemyn didn't even know where the ring was kept, let alone have a key to the lockbox. Monique had done her job well, leaving evidence in Gemyn's room pointing to her as the culprit. She'd been ordered out to the barn, without supper. She could still hear Mistress Aylwin's voice – "If you wish to act like a little animal, you can sleep with them in the barn!"

The sound of a twig cracking on the ground outside the barn made Gemyn jump, and she ducked her head back inside before whoever it was looked up and caught her with her head out. "I've sent word," she heard Master Alwar's voice. "They'll be here for her in the morning."

"Good," Mistress Aylwin replied. Gemyn could hear the silky satisfaction in her voice. "I've had enough of that thieving little chit. Perhaps ten years in a work camp will teach her to keep her hands to herself."

Gemyn felt her stomach turn to ice; shivers ran up and down her spine, despite the warmth of the evening. The work camps? _No, no, no! _She began to shake uncontrollably. They couldn't send her to the work camps! They were just a story – a story told to frighten her into behaving as a child! They weren't _real! _They couldn't be real! Panic was beginning to set in as every story she'd ever heard about the work camps tumbled through her feverish mind.

The work camps were only for criminals, _real _criminals – murderers and thieves and rapists. She wasn't one of that lot! She _wasn't! _Even if she _had _stolen Mistress Aylwin's ring! No one in their right mind would look at her and think she deserved to be sent -! They'd took one look at her and cut her throat in her sleep – _before _they raped her, if she was lucky. If she wasn't lucky…

An inhuman howl tore out of her throat and she bolted down from the hayloft, intent on fleeing. She'd take her chances in the mountains before she'd let them sell her to the work camps! The barn door was padlocked. Gemyn screamed, and began pounding on the door. "Let me out! Let me out!" she wailed.

"You shut up in there!" She heard Mistress Aylwin shout from the other side. "Heard us, did you? You're off to the camps just as soon as they can get here and take you out of my sight! I've had enough, you hear? I shan't keep an orphan about out of the goodness of my heart if I can't trust her to keep her grubby little paws out of my things the moment my back is turned!"

"I didn't – take – it," Gemyn sobbed, continuing to beat on the heavy wooden door. "_Please! _You have to believe me! I didn't take it! It was Monique!"

There was a heavy rattle as the lock was opened, and the door creaked open. Gemyn, hardly daring to believe it, peered out and just as suddenly fell back with a cry as Mistress Aylwin darted at her with a bean cane. "How – dare – you!" She shrieked, punctuating each word with a sharp _thwack_. Gemyn fell back onto the muddy ground, raising her arms to try and protect her face. "Accusing my daughter – _my daughter – _of stealing from me! You worthless – lump – of – manure! Why would Monique steal from me? That ring'll be hers just as soon as she marries! She doesn't need to steal it!" Her fury reached a fever pitch as she continued to hit every bit of Gemyn she could reach. "I don't know why I ever agreed to keep you in the first place! I could tell, the minute I saw you, that you were trouble! Why do you think your own mother didn't want you? No one could love a filthy tramp like you!"

Mistress Aylwin's words stung just as much as the bean cane did. Tears streamed down Gemyn's face, mixing with the dirt and muddying her face. "I'm sorry!" she cried. "Please – stop!" Monique was peering around the barn door with the look of a cat who has eaten the canary. A surge of pure hatred flooded Gemyn, and she bared her teeth in a snarl even as the bean cane came down hard across her abdomen. She would die a thousand painful deaths before she let Monique see her beg for mercy!

Suddenly Gemyn felt a sharp pain in her side, a different sort of pain than the razor-sharp sting of the bean cane. She looked around wildly, but the only ones there were Mistress Aylwin and Monique. "Oh!" Gemyn shrieked as the pain came again, sharper and more insistent this time. She felt as if someone was dragging her backwards by her hair. The barn was dissolving quickly around her, objects first losing their color, then blurring along the edges. Each sharp _thwack _of the bean cane hurt a little less, and then the sound and sensation evaporated altogether. Mistress Aylwin's piercing shrieks were fading, too. Gemyn felt as though she was looking through a thick fog. The mist grew deeper with each passing second until the barn and all its sounds and smells vanished entirely and she was merely floating in a whirlwind of rushing sound and color. The whole event had lasted not even ten seconds, but to the frightened Gemyn it felt like minutes, even hours. In reality, she disappeared silently and almost instantaneously. Mistress Aylwin was left beating the ground, stopping only when she realized that Gemyn was no longer there. She immediately howled for her husband to set out searching, but there was no point – Gemyn was gone, long gone where they could never find her.

Gemyn slammed to the ground, and her feet, unprepared for the sharp landing, buckled beneath her. She fell on hard stone, her hands and knees smarting from the impact. She lay still for a moment, waiting to see if anything hurt. Nothing did, so she assumed that she hadn't broken anything and began to make slow, gradual movements. Eventually she lifted her head and looked around, feeling dizzy. Even before she looked up however, she knew she was no longer on the farm in the foothills of Termina - the hot dusty smell of the air and the bright yellow sunshine told her that much. That puzzled her; how could the sun just be coming up when it had been setting over the mountains just moments before?

Her eyes gradually adjusted to the brightness of her surroundings and she realized she was in the desert. She had never seen a desert before, but she had read about them, and there was no mistaking the soft golden swells of many sand hills receding ever on into the horizon like a great stationary sea of liquid gold. The smell of dust lingered in the air, and the heat was stifling. When she opened her mouth to breathe, she choked on the superheated air entering her lungs, and her nose itched at the sand that had somehow become lodged there. This sand was a bright golden color, and glittered and reflected the sunlight so well that she was tempted to think that the sand was crushed gold powder, or maybe bronze. Whatever it was, the sunlight on the sand reflected in a trillion sparkles and she screwed her eyes up against the brilliance, raising a hand to shield her face as she turned 180 degrees to gaze at the enormous monument at her back. Until that moment she had never seen it before, not even in the pages of a book; but gazing up at it she felt as though she had always known it.

She gazed up at the sandstone monument before her, and shivered a little. It was constructed in the shape of a woman with her arms outstretched, palms up. It was beautiful and frightening all at once. Eventually she dragged her eyes from the bewitching sight - made even more eye-catching by the morning sun on the Goddess' face - and looked down at the flat stone platform she was standing on. It was an octagonal stone pedestal, roughly six feet in diameter, and carved out of the same sandstone as the Goddess monument. Etched deep into the stone was an equilateral triangle, which in turn was separated into four smaller triangles, all equilateral. The Triforce! The symbol for Hyrule! It wasn't possible – it just wasn't possible! She was in Hyrule? The logical part of her denied this even as she stared at the ancient Hylian symbol. Yet, in a way, it made sense – Hyrule was on the other side of the world. When the sun set in Termina, it rose in Hyrule and vice versa.

How had this happened? How had she come here? She gazed at the symbol, feeling the same strange tingle of deja vu that had overcome her as she gazed up at the Goddess statue. Also engraved on the platform was a strange symbol she didn't recognize, too odd to describe, although it rang a tiny bell deep in her consciousness. The back of her neck tingled, and she shivered again, although the desert air was dry and hot.

Someone was watching her. She sensed it almost too late, and turned to see a woman charging at her from in front of the monument. Her hair was a fiery red color, and she wore bright purple robes and carried a long wooden stick with a wickedly sharp-looking blade lashed to the end. Gemyn wondered wildly for a moment how she could not have seen this other woman, and then realized that the monument was not just a monument - it was a temple. The woman must have been watching from the shade of the entrance, and was now coming to dispatch the intruder.

Gemyn threw herself to the side and out of the way of the wild-eyed soldier woman, but the Gerudo was able to catch herself, swinging around and crashing the solid wooden pole of her weapon against Gemyn's skull. Gemyn crumpled instantly, unconscious. A tiny trickle of blood slid down her cheek - the skin on her scalp was cut from the force of the hit, but the wound was superficial and it would heal easily enough.

The soldier woman whistled to her comrades, still hidden in the shade of the temple. Three more women emerged from the shadows and gazed with curious disdain at the girl at their feet. Two of the women wore purple robes that matched those of their leader; the fourth was much younger than her companions, with her red hair cut short and dressed in red or white. While the others carried long poles with sharp blades lashed to the ends, she carried only a dagger, and no jewelry adorned her neck or wrists. They looked towards their leader and waited for instructions.

"What do we do with her, Anaya?"

"Shall we kill her?"

Anaya ignored these questions, still gazing down at Gemyn. Her sapphire eyes betrayed no emotion whatsoever. "It is forbidden to kill an enemy in his sleep. We must return her to the Fortress, and let Raobi decide her fate." What she really wanted was to find out what Gemyn had been doing there. Anaya was not a young Gerudo, and she had seen many strange and wondrous things in her lifetime – but never had she seen a young girl materialize out of thin air. Although protocol dictated that she be killed – the Desert Colossus was sacred ground to the Gerudos, and forbidden to outsiders – she desperately wanted to know how she had gotten there. That was why Anaya had only knocked her unconscious instead of slicing her throat.

"Lia! Throw her over the back of my horse. We must set out immediately." Anaya ordered, throwing her eyes coldly at the other three under her command.

Lia, the fourth Gerudo and the youngest, jumped at her mistress' command and hoisted the unconscious Gemyn into her arms with ease. While the other Gerudos mounted their own horses, Lia threw Gemyn over the flank of her own mount and tied her securely to the saddle. After checking to make sure the others were not watching, she brushed the hair from Gemyn's face almost tenderly. There was a flicker of apprehension in Lia's eyes which she hid from the others.

After Lia had climbed into her saddle, Anaya let out a fierce yell and started off across the golden dunes towards the Fortress. Lia was the only one who looked at Gemyn's unconscious body lashed tightly to the saddle, her face pressed into the dusty flank of the horse carrying her.


	3. II

Zelda sat in the confines of her round tower room. She was calm; only her eyes betrayed the sadness she felt. They were coming. She closed her eyes, listening to the footsteps barrelling up the stone stairwell, echoing off the walls. The heavy wooden door burst open, revealing two large men and a small dainty woman dressed all in white.

Zelda opened her eyes and looked at them sadly. She knew their faces well - especially the Lady.

The Lady's guards were tall, at least six feet. They weighed well over three hundred pounds, but it was not fat that contributed to their weight - it was pure muscle. Their swarthy faces seemed to be etched in stone, and they stood, motionless, waiting for the Lady to give them orders. Zelda knew them to be Gorongoes - a rare crossbreed between Gorons and Dodongoes, a species that lived in the deepest, darkest pit of Dodongo's Cave. By the looks of these two, they were the results of many Gorongo generations.

The Lady contrasted these two hulking creatures in every way. Where they were dark, she was fair. Where they were grotesque, she was beautiful. Her golden hair that hung to her waist, and when she moved it rippled around her like a river of molten gold. Her big blue eyes sparkled with mischief, and her lips turned naturally up, making it appear as though she was smiling. Her body was swathed in robes of purest white. Although she was small, she emanated such power and confidence that you found yourself, upon looking at her, feeling as though she were ten times your height.

The Lady looked into Zelda's eyes triumphantly. Zelda gazed back, sorrow filling the forget-me-not blue depths.

"Get on with it, then."

* * *

Raobi sat before the alter in her chambers, legs crossed and eyes closed. Her face was tense with anxiety as she thought back to the dreams that had haunted her the night before. It wasn't often that she felt afraid, but she was afraid now. Something had happened at the Colossus, and she had dreamed about it. And whatever it was, whatever was out there, frightened her. In her dream, dark clouds had gathered over the Colossus. A desert storm, only these clouds had engulfed the Colossus entirely. The walls of the Fortress trembled with the force of the thunder. When the storm had finally ended, the Colossus was destroyed. Utterly ruined. All that was left was the stone foundations. Even now, picturing the beloved Goddess desecrated beyond all repair made Raobi's stomach clench with fear.

When she'd woken, she'd expected to hear reports of a terrible desert storm, destroying everything in its path - but there'd been nothing. Even so, she felt certain that something had happened at the Colossus, and so she was waiting for someone to bring the news to her. She knew they would. It was just a matter of time. A contingent of guards was kept at the Desert Colossus on a weekly rotating schedule. Even though no word had come through that the current contingent was returning early, or that anything had happened...she knew they would come to her. Gerudos were taught from an early age that dreams were a valuable source of information and were not to be disregarded...especially dreams such as this. Dreams which foretold such violence and desecration.

Therefore, when a swift knock came at the door to her chambers, she felt no surprise; just unease. "Enter," she called, keeping her voice strong and betraying none of the turmoil she was feeling. The heavy wooden door swung open and in marched the three guards and the slave that had been sent out to the Colossus two nights previously.

"Well?" Raobi snapped once the slave had dutifully shut the door behind them.

"We found a girl, lady." Said Anaya after falling to her knees in a show of respect for the Gerudo leader.

"A girl?" Raobi asked, momentarily stunned. She had been expecting death, destruction, annihilation...but a girl? "What do you mean a girl? What kind of girl? How did she get to the Colossus? Where is she?"

"A Hylian girl, lady." said Anaya, her eyes respectfully on the floor. "And...we're not sure how she got to the Colossus. We were maintaining our positions as expected of us, when suddenly there was a strange noise - like a horn blowing. A great wind blew up, and sand flew everywhere. We could not see anything. When the wind died down, she was there, standing on Nayru's Pedestal."

A witch, Raobi thought, a feeling of horror rising in her breast. "Well? Where is she? Have you brought her back with you?"

"Yes, lady." Anaya said, signalling to the slave girl, Lia, who hastened out of the room and returned a moment later with the unconscious Gemyn in her arms. She laid Gemyn at Raobi's feet and retreated to her place at the back of the room, her chin tucked as low into her breast as was possible. It was punishable by death for a slave to raise her face to superiors; especially to someone like Raobi.

"Wake her up," Raobi demanded.

Anaya shuffled her feet, a little discomfited. "We...we cannot wake her, lady. We've tried."

Annoyed, and furious, Raobi blistered Anaya with her hottest gaze. "You've tried? You've tried what, exactly?"

"Smelling salts, cold water, even a slap across the face and shouting in her ears. If her heart was not beating, and her breathing regular, I would be almost certain she was dead, lady." Anaya refrained from mentioning that it had been she who had knocked Gemyn unconscious. Raobi had a reputation for having a furious temper which she did not hesitate to blast on whomever she felt deserved it.

Raobi sat back, disgusted. "You should have taken her alive and conscious," she snapped. "Next time you return to the Colossus - which, I assure you, will not be anytime soon - make sure you do as I tell you. Take her to a holding cell. I want to be notified the second she awakes."

"Yes, lady." Anaya felt her cheeks burning, and signaled once more to the slave in the corner, who slung Gemyn over her shoulder effortlessly. They left the chamber in single file, Anaya smarting from Raobi's words. Of course, she would never even hint at her anger, for to do so would mean death, but she needed to find some way to relieve her tension. She gnashed her teeth and slid her eyes to look at Lia. No one cared about slaves, and having one less around wouldn't bother anyone, least of all Anaya. "After you have taken the girl to a cell, return to my quarters," she said tightly. "Wait for me in my chamber. Alone."

Lia's flinch went unnoticed. "Yes, mistress." She said quietly, and knelt to pick up Gemyn once more. She knew what awaited her in Anaya's chambers; a long, drawn-out beating that would last until Anaya's humiliation at the hands of Raobi had ceased to occupy her mind. If she was lucky, none of her bones would be broken this time. Lia lifted her eyes to the ceiling as she carried Gemyn down the long, downward sloping corridor towards the holding cells in the basement of the Fortress and prayed to the Goddess that Anaya's rage would be short-lived.


	4. III

Lia lay on the floor in her tiny cell-like room, naked, gasping for breath and trying to shut out the pain. Fury coursed through her body with such an intensity that she couldn't stop herself from shaking. Her back, if she could have seen it, would have turned her stomach - there was barely an inch of uncut skin. The wounds were deep, and bled freely. Her face was a mass of black and purple bruises, and she felt certain that she'd broken a rib or two. She raised herself slowly onto her hands and knees, gritting her teeth against the stabbing pain in her side and the throbbing pain as the dried blood on her back cracked and pulled at the skin, and fresh blood trickled down. A low guttural moan wrenched from her throat as she forced herself to stand, swaying back and forth. She put out a hand on the cool sandstone wall to hold herself up.

_Master your pain!_ She told herself fiercely. _You're a Gerudo. You feel no pain. You feel nothing._ She drew in long, deep breaths, ignoring every pain in her body, and sank slowly into a light trance. She envisioned a white, healing light surrounding her and slowly, the pain faded away into the darkness. She kept still a moment longer, then opened her eyes and allowed her hands to explore her now partially healed wounds. As a slave, she should never have been allowed to learn Gerudo magic. Lia had taken her life into her hands by listening at doors, and had taught herself as best as she could - the healing magic had come in handy more than once with Anaya for an owner, for Anaya had a temper that matched Raobi's and she liked to take it out on her slaves, who were forbidden to retaliate. She had heard Anaya mention more than once to the other slave-owners that her Lia seemed to be able to heal quicker than most; fortunately, the reason why this should be had never bothered her sufficiently to look into it.

The bruising and swelling in her face had gone down, and the ribs that Anaya had fractured had knitted enough so that if she moved slowly, there was no pain. She took several deep breaths, and there was no sharp stabbing of pain in her side. The wounds on her back still throbbed, but the flow of blood had ceased, and several of the more shallow cuts had scarred over. She threw her clothes back on, moving gingerly, not wanting the wounds she'd just healed to open up again. She could have healed them all completely, but it would have left her exhausted and as wrung out as an old sponge - and she had work to do tonight.

She was leaving. She'd been planning to run away for months now, and although all of her plans hadn't been finalized, she could not stay after what had happened tonight. She had been lucky to escape death tonight, and she knew it. The next time Anaya got angry over the way a superior had treated her, she'd kill Lia. And Lia knew it.

Of course Anaya had the door to Lia's room locked - as all of the slaves were locked in. Gerudo security was tight. But Anaya didn't know that Lia had been digging through the wall for months on end. All of the walls of the Fortress were comprised of tightly fitting sandstone blocks, varying from one to three square feet in diameter. It caused an interesting, eye-catching pattern that took away from the bland color of the sandstone. Lia had discovered that blocks were not very thick, and left a space behind when pulled out. If the right block was removed, the remaining blocks would not fall - but only if you were careful. Lia had spent weeks gouging out the cement around a block halfway up the wall. When she'd finally gotten the block out, there was a foot and a half of space behind which she had been carefully digging out until she found herself in the space between walls - just large enough to walk along. She'd mapped a pathway from this point to a dark corner of the lower floors where no one would notice the cement missing from a block in the wall. Late at night, when she was locked into her room and presumed to be resting, she would slip through the wall and chip away at her exit point until, finally, less than a week ago, she had succeeded in freeing it. Since that exalting moment, she had been smuggling supplies into the crawlspace and preparing for her escape to freedom. From her exit point, she would make her way to the stables unnoticed – if anyone saw her, they would simply assume she was on a task for Anaya – and steal a horse. By the time anyone realized she was gone...it would be too late.

She lifted the block down and pushed it up against the door, which would slow whomever was sent to check on her, for the doors swung inwards. She knew that as soon as someone came into the room they would know what had happened, for she could not return the block to the wall once she had gone through. She slipped through the hole and found herself in the space between the walls and began inching along the narrow space between the walls. Her ears were pricked for any sound coming through the walls, and when Raobi's voice resounded directly in front of her, she had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep herself from gasping. Her heart thundered in her ears.

"Is she awake yet?"

"Not quite, lady. She has begun to stir, but she has not yet returned to full consciousness." Lia recognized the voice as belonging to one of the guards who had been assigned to Anaya.

"I want her brought to me the moment she awakens."

"Yes, Lady."

Lia heard the sound of footsteps and the heavy, creaking wooden door opening and shutting. She waited a moment, and was about to move on, when she heard Raobi's voice again.

"We'll have to kill her."

"My Lady?" This voice belonged to one of Raobi's personal guard.

"She must be a witch. She has desecrated the Desert Colossus with her unworthy presence. The only way to regain Nayru's favor is to sacrifice this witch to the Goddesses and pray for forgiveness in allowing such a travesty to occur."

There was a silence, and Lia realized they were talking about the girl that had been found at the Colossus that morning. What was Raobi doing? What was threatening her?

"Bring the ceremonial tools to me," said Raobi. "And tell no one what we plan."

"Yes, Lady." said the guard, and Lia again heard the door open and close.

A second plan began to formulate in Lia's mind. She couldn't leave now, knowing what they intended to do to the girl lying unconscious in a cold sandstone cell. She would take the girl with her. Despite the fact that this would only complicate matters, and more than triple their chances of getting caught, Lia's life as a slave had taught her compassion. She would not leave an innocent child to be murdered if there was something she could do to stop it. It would be simple enough to steal down to the dungeon from her exit point; it was not far.

Her mouth twisted into a scowl of concentration, she continued her journey through the walls until she came to the exit point. She pressed her ear against the wall, listening hard for any sound of footsteps that told her a sentry was walking along the corridor. There was nothing. She ran her hands over the blocks, feeling for the cracks, until she found 'her' block and pushed gently outwards, feeling the block tremble and slide forwards an inch at a time. When there was enough room for her to crawl through, she did so, and quickly pushed the block back into place. Her heart was beginning to pound, and a small voice in her mind kept telling her to hurry, hurry! The girl was waking up, and soon she'd be at the mercy of Raobi and her insane ideas about witchcraft and desecration of the Goddess. Lia considered it the most basic form of hypocrisy to murder an innocent girl for supposedly being involved in witchcraft when the Gerudo population prided themselves on their ability to make magic.

Magic Lia would have to invoke now, if she wanted to make her way to the cell block undetected and get the girl out in time. She retreated into the shadows, needing to remain unseen while she worked her spell of invisibility. Of course it wasn't true invisibility - that was impossible. It merely made others not notice her, even if she was right under their nose. She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm herself. She had practiced her meditation so much that it was nearly instantaneous, and within moments she was deep in a trance. _I am invisible_, she told herself, envisioning a white circle extending in a two foot radius around her. When she felt confident that she would not be noticed by any of the night guards, she stepped out of the shadows and set off for the cell block, moving as quickly as her broken ribs would allow. When she came upon a sentry, Lia purposely stepped in front of the guard's path. The Gerudo stepped to the side, not even glancing at Lia. Feeling a quick surge of triumph, she continued on.

The cell block was located on the lowest level of the Fortress, nearly two stories underground to prevent escape by digging. There were torches blazing in sconces along the corridors, but the actual cells were dark. One, however, was lit - at the far end of the block, creamy lamplight glowed on the red-gold sandstone walls, casting wavering shadows. Lia crept towards the light, taking care to keep her emotions under control. Her spell of invisibility only functioned if she managed to stay detached. The second she allowed herself to feel anger, sadness, or any other sort of emotion, she became noticeable to anyone who took the time to look.

She stood beside Raobi's second-in-command, who was watching Gemyn writhe and twist on the floor in her cell, apparently caught in bad dreams. Her hair was plastered to her forehead. Lia felt a surge of sympathy for the girl, but quickly forced her emotions back into submission when the guard cast her a suspicious glance. Lia's heart pounded, but the guard lost interest as the invisibility spell cloaked her once more, and resumed her watch over Gemyn.

Her eyes were fluttering now, and Lia knew that she was moments from waking fully. She would have to make her move the second that the guard opened the cell block - knocking the guard unconscious and rushing Gemyn up to the main level where they could get out of the Fortress and into the desert, where they would be safe.

Gemyn's eyes opened and she looked around, sitting up slowly and looking around. "Wh - where am I?" she asked, her tongue thick with sleep and her voice raspy from lack of water. She blinked several times, her eyes adjusting to the bright glow of the lamps. She took in the sandstone and the heavy iron bars before her, and realized she was in some sort of jail. She barely had time to remember the events leading up to her arrival here when there was the scream of a rusty key in a lock and an unsmiling young woman entered the cell, grasping her arm roughly and jerking her to her feet. "What's going on?" Gemyn asked, trying to keep the note of fear out of her voice.

The woman was about to respond when suddenly her eyes rolled back into her head and her knees buckled. She fell forwards heavily, and Gemyn struggled out from under her weight. What was happening? Then, seemingly out of nowhere, another woman was there. She looked vaguely the same as the guard now unconscious on the cold stone floor of the cell, but her clothes were different, and her eyes seemed more human. Gemyn let out a yelp of surprise which was quickly stifled as the new woman slapped a hand across Gemyn's mouth.

"Shh!" She said fiercely. "If anyone hears you, our lives will be worth less than sand."

Gemyn nodded, and the woman removed her hand. "Who are you?" She whispered.

"My name is Lia. But there is no time to talk right now. We have to go before someone discovers you missing."

"I'm Gemyn."

Lia tugged Gemyn out of the cell and locked the door with the keys she'd taken off of the guard's body. "Stay close to me. There's a chance we can remain unnoticed."

It was possible to extend an invisibility spell to another person, but Lia had never had the chance to practice with anyone else, not wanting to give away that she had learned magic. She did her best to shield Gemyn, hoping desperately that it worked. They crept out of the cell block and up to the main level of the Fortress, staying in the shadows and doing their best to avoid sentries.

"That's the entrance," Lia whispered to Gemyn, as they knelt down to hide in the shadow of an archway. They looked down the empty corridor towards the open entryway, where two guards stood, one on either side, alert and wary of all the comings and goings. Lia assessed the situation silently. She wasn't confident enough in her invisibility spell to try and walk past them both with Gemyn; but it would be equally dangerous to attempt to take them both out, for she'd have to do one at a time and the other would be sure to notice if her mate suddenly went limp. But it was their only choice, and time was running out.

"Stay here. I'll go take them out." Lia ordered Gemyn, doubling her concentration on remaining unseen and slipping out of the shadows towards the two guards. She would have to kill at least one of them, she knew. She didn't look forward to it. But it had to be done - and if these two Gerudos were anything like the others, they'd killed at least one slave each in their lifetimes. Consider it karma. She approached the guard on the right and cautiously removed the dagger from the guard's side, watching her face every moment for signs that she was aware of what was going on. There were none.

She prepared herself with a deep breath, and in one quick, fluid movement, threw the dagger. Her aim was true, and the dagger buried itself deep in the opposite guard's throat. She slid slowly to the ground, making gasping, bubbling noises as her airway collapsed and she choked on her own blood. Without skipping a beat, Lia wound her arm around the second guards throat and held her tightly, cutting off the blood supply with her bicep.

"Don't move, and I may let you live." She growled in the guard's ear. "And don't even think about going for your sword."

The guard snarled, and disregarded Lia's warnings altogether. Lia had expected nothing less - Gerudo women were trained not to respond to threats. But Lia was ready, and her left arm had reached for the guard's sword before the guard could do anything but bite down into Lia's forearm. With a solid thrust, Lia ran the guard through from behind. She went stiff only for a moment, and then collapsed backwards against Lia, who lowered the body gently to the ground, then turned and beckoned for Gemyn to come forwards.

Gemyn, who had watched the scene with apprehension, hurried towards Lia. Her eyes took in the scene of carnage at the entrance, and she felt dizzy with disgust.

"I'm sorry," Lia told Gemyn, her tone genuine. "I wish I hadn't had to kill them...but it was too risky to let them live. It had to be done."

Gemyn nodded, concentrating on not throwing up. She swallowed several times before trusting herself to meet Lia's eyes. "Just let's go," she said softly.

Lia nodded, and led Gemyn around the side of the Fortress to the stables. She pointed to a saddle, indicating that Gemyn should pick it up and carry it towards the stables. Lia deposited her saddle onto a large palomino stallion, then gestured to Gemyn to do the same with her saddle. Gemyn did so with the expert touch of one who has saddled a horse thousands of times – which she had. Though her riding ability was at the novice level at best, she had saddled horses for Mistress Aylwin and Monique to go riding many, many times. Still, she knew how to sit a saddle and stay on a horse; so long as they did not have to do anything fancy, she imagined she would be fine. The one thing she hadn't counted on was how awkward it would be to ride in her dress; if only she had the baggy pants that Lia wore! She was also barefoot, and knew that the stirrups would make her ankles hurt long before they had gotten far. Still, there was nothing for it but to make the best of it; it was better to have sore ankles than to be killed, after all.

Lia began strapping the saddle to the horse's back, and slipped the bit into the stallion's mouth, tightening the reins expertly. Gemyn followed suit. They led the horses from the stable and out into the cool desert night. Lia glanced at the sky as they mounted. There was a thin, faint pink stripe on the eastern horizon, telling her that sunrise was coming. They had little time left to get away.

"We will have to gallop," she said simply. "Do not worry about your horse growing tired – Gerudo stallions are bred for endurance. Do not stop your horse until I tell you to do so." Gemyn nodded, tightening her knees as her horse pranced a little on the sand. Lia moved her horse up ahead of Gemyn, pointing towards the pink line on the horizon. "We head east. Stop for nothing."

"What happened to your back?" Gemyn asked, gazing with horror at the half-healed cuts and whip marks that criss crossed all over Lia's back and neck.

"Never mind that now," said Lia roughly. "When we get to the Hylian Falls, we will have time to talk. But for now, we must ride before the sun rises and we are discovered missing. I should tell you now, that if the Gerudos capture us, we are dead. Do not go along with anything they might offer you - fight, and fight hard. Take down as many as you can before you're killed. And I shall do the same." With that, she dug her heels hard into the horse's sides, and he leaped into a gallop, heading off into the cold, unyielding desert. Gemyn followed suit, clinging hard to the pommel and pressing her knees tightly into her horse's sides.


	5. IV

Though Lia said nothing to Gemyn, her nerves were as frayed as an old rope. She knew that as soon as Gemyn was discovered missing from her cell, they would have an entire legion of Gerudo soldiers after them. Her ears were constantly pricked for the sound of furious yells and hoofbeats closing in on them. They never came, but once the sun had cleared the horizon, Lia knew that they would be coming. Even if, by some miracle, no one had discovered the missing prisoner, the disappearance of Lia in conjunction with the two murdered guards would be more than enough to justify sending a contingent out after the fugitives.

Gemyn herself was worried mainly about staying on the horse. Her arms and legs had cramped up long ago, but she didn't dare relax her grip - every time she tried, she felt herself sliding sideways off of the horse, which frightened her.

Lia was silent as the horse galloped ever eastward, screwing up her eyes at the brilliance of the morning sun but never altering her course in the slightest. She seemed to know exactly where she was going, although Gemyn saw only golden dune after golden dune slide past them as they rode on and on. Gemyn patterned her conduct after Lia's, staying quiet and attempting to move with the rhythm of the horse, although she ached to give voice to the questions that bubbled to her lips - about the cruel whip marks that criss-crossed over Lia's back, and most of all, about the curious way in which Gemyn had found her attention continually sliding away from Lia when she'd gone to kill those guards. She told herself there would be time to ask questions whenever they stopped to rest, but she did not know when that would be, for Lia showed no signs of stopping as the day wore on.

Gemyn's sore, cramped muscles eventually grew rock hard, and seemed to freeze in place. She allowed her back and neck to relax, attempting to ignore the shooting pains that traveled up her nerve endings. She guessed, by the position of the sun in the sky, that it was about ten o'clock in the morning, and wondered for the thousandth time when they'd be out of this cursed desert. It took her a while to realize that the sand dunes were growing smaller, and there was no longer a clear line of view to the horizon - dark smudgy shapes were growing larger by the second, and she realized they were cliffs. The air was no longer filled with the hot, dusty silence and the dull thud of the horse's hooves on the sand, and there was a faint, rushing, roaring sound. Water! It was only then that Gemyn realized how thirsty she was, and her throat seemed to close as soon as soon as this thought occurred to her. She nearly gagged on the dry feeling in her mouth and her intense ache to ask Lia questions transformed into an unquenchable thirst.

"We will be at the Hylian Falls within the hour," Lia called over her shoulder to the dehydrated Gemyn. Gemyn, who had not been expecting Lia to speak and had been fantasizing about a glass of crystal clear, ice cold water, jumped and her sore muscles released their grip for a split second. She reacted by letting out a sharp cry of pain, causing Lia to jump as well and glance behind her, expecting to see a horde of angry Gerudos behind them. That there was nothing there did little to decrease her annoyance. "Do not startle me like that!" She admonished sharply, for she too was growing thirsty and increasingly edgy from the long ride and the conspicuous lack of anyone on their tail.

"Sorry," Gemyn muttered, her voice a dry rasp that tore at her throat. She relaxed her grip ever so slightly, and her muscles cramped worse than ever. She bit down on her lip to keep herself from crying out in agony, and tasted blood.

Lia said nothing, but spurred the horse on. She could sense that even he was growing tired, for he had been going at a hard gallop for several hours now. The sun had risen many hours ago, and they had left before it had come up. Not much farther, she thought. Forty minutes at the most, and they would have reached the Falls.

Gemyn watched with wonder as the cliffs rose before them, towering sixty, eighty, one hundred or more feet in the air. The shade provided by the blood-red sandstone was the most exquisite sensation Gemyn had ever experienced, but she was amazed to see the amount of heat shimmering in the air at the tops of the craggy red cliffs. The roaring of the falls grew louder by the second, and as the sound increased, so did Gemyn's thirst until she thought she would die if she didn't have water. It was growing more humid by the second, and she began to breathe through her mouth in an attempt to drink the minuscule water droplets floating in the air. They were no longer riding through shifting sand, but walked along a narrow sandstone path that wound downwards along a steep cliff. Lia had slowed her horse to a fast walk, for to gallop in the cliffs was asking for death. The jarring sensation of hard ground underfoot caused Gemyn's muscles to cramp even further, and the pain grew so bad that she felt she was in danger of passing out altogether. She squeezed her eyes shut to keep herself from looking to her right and seeing the sheer, stomach-clenching drop that tried to draw her gaze like a magnet.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Lia drew the stallion to a halt. Gemyn opened her eyes, feeling slightly sick, and beheld the most beautiful - and terrifying - sight she'd ever experienced in her short life. Her breath caught in her chest. The Hylian Falls were resplendent - grand, imposing, a little frightening in their very dignity. She couldn't even begin to guess at how high they were, but she felt sure that they were higher than anything in Termina.

"You cannot see, but there is a cave behind the Falls," Lia shouted over the deafening roar. "We will camp there tonight - and tomorrow, we will continue on our way without the horse, for he cannot continue past this point unless we go to the bridge, which is surely being watched."

If Lia expected Gemyn to feel sorry at this news, she was sorely mistaken - Gemyn felt nothing but relief at the fact that she would never have to ride on the animal again. "How do we get in there?" she yelled back.

"We climb down the rocks. There is a ladder carved into the stone behind the Falls, which will take us back up."

Gemyn glanced down nervously. They were still a quarter of the way up from where the Falls crashed into the river below, and there was no more path. The rocks were slippery and wet from the wild spray - how did Lia expect her to get down there without dashing her brains out? She said nothing, however, and allowed Lia to help her down from the horse. The moment she attempted to stand, however, her legs gave way beneath her, and she finally let out the cry of pain she'd been holding back for hours. She looked up at Lia with tears in her eyes.

Lia seemed to realize the problem, and placed her hands on either side of Gemyn's head, closing her eyes and regulating her breathing. Within a moment, she was deeply in trance. Gemyn watched her in bewilderment, unsure what Lia was doing, but then as the pain began to dissolve away, wonder replaced the vague feeling of discomfort she felt at Lia's touch. After several minutes, Lia drew her hands away and opened her eyes.

"Are you still in pain?" she asked shortly.

Gemyn shook her head, moving her arms and legs experimentally. The cramps were entirely gone, and she felt as relaxed and limber as if she'd spent the night sleeping on a feather bed. "How did you...?"

"Later," Lia said tersely. "Come - the climb down is difficult, and we will need to move quickly." She stood quickly and held out a hand to Gemyn, who took it and allowed Lia to help her to her feet.

"I'm not very good at climbing," she said nervously.

"Don't worry. I will help you." Lia had already slipped over the edge of the cliff and was feeling with her feet for the narrow ledge below them. "I will not let you fall." She found the foothold, and released her grip on the cliff, dropping down into the small space below. Gemyn cried out, thinking Lia had fallen, and moved to the edge to look over.

"I am here," Lia called. "Drop down."

Gemyn's stomach seemed to have been replaced with a lump of iron. Her entire body shook as she slowly inched her legs over the cliff. She thought she might be sick, and fought to keep from going into convulsions of fear. When Lia grabbed her leg to guide her, she jumped and nearly let go, but just barely managed to keep her composure.

"Drop!" Lia shouted. "I will catch you!"

Gemyn closed her eyes, and let go. There was a terrifying, heart stopping moment of free fall, and she felt a tiny scream escape her throat before Lia's strong arms hauled her into the crawlspace. She felt her blood whoosing swiftly through her veins as adrenaline flooded her system. She took in several deep gasping breaths before she felt strong enough to let go of Lia and stand on her own feet.

Lia was already shimmying along, her back pressed tightly to the wall as the ledge grew smaller and smaller. "Do you see that platform there?" She yelled to Gemyn. "We must jump to it!" And before Gemyn could do more than gape at the six or seven foot gap, Lia had gathered her strong muscles and leapt across the chasm, landing squarely on the wet rock and turning to beckon for Gemyn to follow. Gemyn closed her eyes and willed herself not to fall.

For the rest of her life, Gemyn never forgot that climb. It seemed to be the stuff nightmares were made of - the slippery wet rock, the falling, the jumping, the dropping down to the next ledge without ever being quite sure it was even there. She never knew just how she managed to make it down without dying, although she was certain that without Lia, she would not have been able to accomplish it. When they finally reached the banks of the river, Gemyn fell to the earth and thanked every god and goddess she could think of for allowing her to make it down safely. She didn't have long to rest, however, for Lia pulled her up and forced her onwards, saying for the hundredth time that they could not afford to rest until they were in the cave.

There was a wide ledge that ran around behind the falls, and Lia and Gemyn walked along it. Lia kept one hand on the rock wall to her left, and Gemyn followed suit. At the exact midpoint of the Falls, deep steps were cut into the rock, and Lia motioned for Gemyn to begin climbing. Gemyn looked up and thought she could barely make out the dark entrance to the cave Lia kept talking about. She dug her nails into the rock and began the slow, arduous climb upwards, testing her weight on each step before going on. She didn't dare look down, afraid to see just how high she had climbed.

It felt like hours before they reached the dry, sandy cave, although in reality it was barely twenty minutes. Gemyn crawled as far back from the entrance as was possible and wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to betray the intense fear she felt. Lia fell into the cave a moment later, and without so much as a pause, began to strip her wet clothes off until she was completely naked. Gemyn felt the hot blood of modesty come to her cheeks and determinedly looked away from the Gerudo woman.

Lia glanced at Gemyn with mild curiosity. "Why do you look away from me?" she asked.

"It's - it's rude to stare," Gemyn muttered.

Lia smiled slowly. "Are you ashamed?"

"No," Gemyn lied hotly. "It's - it's impolite, that's all."

"Gerudos see no shame in nudity," Lia said. "We are all women, after all. We all look the same - why does it matter if we're looking at ourselves or others? Come, take off your wet clothes. I'll build a fire to dry them."

Gemyn shook her head furiously. No way was she getting naked in front of a complete stranger! None of Lia's cajoling and insistence that she would feel warmer if she removed her soaked garments would make her change her mind. Lia shrugged and rummaged in her pile of wet clothes for the satchel she had brought. It had remained dry due to a special resin that the cloth had been coated in. She reached inside and removed a cloth pack filled with dried fruits and meats, powdered milk, several pieces of flint and some tinder. At the back of the cave, where Gemyn sat shivering, was a large pile of firewood left there for any Gerudo in need of the space. Lia grabbed several logs and began stacking the wood on end in a cone-like shape.

Once this was completed, she picked up the flint and held it expertly in her hands. Within minutes there was a tidy blaze going, and the smoke wafted lazily out of the cave and up into the Falls. Lia tossed a strip of dried goat meat to Gemyn, as well as several dates. Gemyn sniffed the meat suspiciously, and cautiously nibbled on it after watching Lia chew her piece voraciously and with obvious pleasure. She laughed delightedly once she realized it was only meat. "It's jerky!" she said, stuffing it all in her mouth at once with a hunger that surprised her.

She scooted closer to the fire, still shivering inside her wet garments. She tried not to notice how Lia's skin was dry already, and how warm and relaxed she appeared to be. Would it really be so bad to follow suit and strip down? Lia wouldn't care. Gemyn contemplated it for a moment, but modesty was stronger than the desire to be warm, and she kept her wet clothes on.

Lia read the battle on Gemyn's face as easily as others read books. "I will not look at you. Take those wet things off, get warm." With this, she turned her back to Gemyn and chewed her meat almost thoughtfully.

Gemyn, her face bright red, cautiously began removing her plain cotton warp dress, watching Lia closely. She was ready to cover herself the moment Lia began to turn, but the Gerudo kept her word and her eyes never left the entrance to the cave. Gemyn laid her clothes out on the floor beside the fire, as Lia had done. Her embarassment was too great for words, but her skin began to dry almost instantly and she felt warmer the moment the wet clothes left her body. A great relief went through her. Why, this wasn't so bad!

"You can turn around if you'd like," she said shyly, bringing her knees up and crossing her arms over her chest. Lia turned, continuing to keep her gaze off of Gemyn.

Lia poked at the fire and put her hands out to warm them in the blaze. "Now," she said after a moment. "Tell me your story."


	6. V

Lia poked at the fire and put her hands out to warm them in the blaze. "Now," she said after a moment. "Tell me your story. How did you come to find yourself at the Colossus?"

Gemyn traced tiny patterns in the fine sand at her feet, not looking at Lia. "I don't really know," she said truthfully. "I was in the barn, and then out of nowhere I got this strange feeling like someone was pulling me, and - "

"No, no." Lia interrupted. "Start at the beginning."

Gemyn sighed. She did not like to speak of her life on the farm. "I'm an orphan," she began. "I never knew my birth parents. When I was only a few days old, I was brought to the farm of Master Alwar and Mistress Aylwin. They took me in to raise, and put me to work as soon as I was old enough to carry a bucket. They had a daughter, a year older than me – Monique. She was dreadfully spoiled, and just _hated _me – I don't know why. Dalia said she was jealous of me because I was so much prettier than her, but that seems silly – why would someone like Monique be jealous of _me_?"

"Who is Dalia?" Lia asked.

"Oh, the cook," Gemyn explained. "She was the only one on the whole farm who was nice to me. But of course, she was only nice to me when no one else was around; she had to pretend to scorn me just as much as the rest of them when anyone was looking. It was quite clever, really, for she had the family convinced she couldn't stand me, and so as punishment they'd often hand me over to her care. Little did they know she would sneak me honey cakes and, when I was younger, let me play in the pantry."

"You have had a hard life," Lia commented. "It seems we have more in common than I thought."

Gemyn looked up with slight surprise. "We do?"

"Yes," Lia said. "But please...continue with your story."

"Right," Gemyn agreed. "I suppose life wasn't altogether pleasant for me, but it wasn't all bad. At least, so long as I stayed out of Monique's way. She took any excuse she could think of to get me into trouble. And then - " Gemyn hesitated, unsure how to continue. "I accidentally caught her with – with one of the men we hire in the summer to help harvest the crops. They were in the woodshed, and I had been sent to collect more for the kitchen...and there they were. I tried to explain that it was an accident, and that I wouldn't say anything, but she wouldn't listen. She stole her mother's prized necklace and planted evidence in my room that pointed to me as the thief. They...locked me in the barn and were intending to have me sent to a work camp. When I tried to tell Mistress Aylwin that it had been Monique who had stolen the necklace, she began beating me. And the next thing I knew, I...was in the desert. I don't know how it happened, it just...did."

"But how is that possible?" Lia wondered, more to herself than anything. "Do you suppose the Goddesses called you here?"

Gemyn shrugged helplessly. "I don't know why I'm here," she confessed. "It just...sort of happened. Like I said, Mistress Aylwin was hitting me, and then I saw Monique and I grew angry, and I just - I felt this sort of tugging, and I got pulled backwards and everything seemed to dissolve, and I was in this weird mist, and then I fell onto that platform out in the middle of the desert...and I was looking around, and a woman came running out of the shadows, and I jumped out of the way - and that's the last thing I remember."

"That was my master," Lia said. "Her name was Anaya. She hit you over the head and knocked you unconscious, and we brought you back to the Fortress with us."

"Your master?" Gemyn asked. "Are you a - servant?"

"A slave," said Lia. "I do not get paid for my work, and these marks you see on my back are quite frankly, considered decent treatment among our people."

Gemyn was horrified. The vicious whip marks on Lia's back had been enough to cause Gemyn's stomach to flip - and they were half healed! She couldn't imagine what they'd been like as fresh, bleeding wounds. She swallowed slightly. Perhaps her own life hadn't been so bad, after all.

"You're a slave?" she whispered.

"Yes. Although no longer. Helping you to escape the Fortress was not my sole intention - I am escaping as well. I plan to go to Princess Zelda, and hopefully she will take me in. I would rather be a servant under her that a slave under Anaya for even one more day." Lia spat disgustedly on the fire, for Anaya's name put a sour taste in her mouth. "She is a vicious woman, one who takes her petty rage out on underlings who haven't the authority to retaliate. In the past few months, her beatings have grown more violent than usual and I am certain that if I had stayed, she would have killed me without so much as a moment's hesitation."

"But - but surely if she'd killed you she'd have gotten in trouble!" Gemyn said indignantly.

Lia smiled sadly at Gemyn's naivety. "Hardly," she sighed. "No one gives a damn about a slave - especially one such as me."

"What d'you mean?"

"I am half Hylian," Lia confessed. "When my mother was sixteen, she was sent into the Castle Town Market to trade goods. She caught the eye of a group of Hylian soldiers, who accosted the caravan on their way back to the Fortress. They killed my mother's guards, and took turns using her for their own pleasure." Lia stopped for a moment here, ignoring the look of horror on Gemyn's face. "She returned to the Gerudos, and said not a word about what had happened to her. She was - and is - the epitome of a Gerudo - cold, hard, unyielding, emotionless. She told the others that her guards had been killed by bandits, and she had escaped by climbing a tree before they had noticed her. But a month later, she realized she was pregnant and had to admit that the Hylians had touched her, and she was carrying a child by one of them. She was kept in solitary confinement until I was born, and at not even an hour old I was thrown into the slave quarters, left to die. One of the women in there - a captured Hylian - took me to raise as her own. It was not until I was fourteen that I learned she was not my true mother."

"So - the Gerudos forced you into slavery because your father was a Hylian?"

"Yes," Lia said sadly. "My people hate and despise Hylians with everything in them, thinking themselves higher up and more worthy of the attention of the Goddesses. If a Hylian wanders into Gerudo territory, and is captured, he or she becomes a slave. Half-breeds, like me, are of course, destined to be nothing but slaves. Only pure-bloods are allowed to serve in the army, or own slaves. Everyone else is considered inhuman, worthy of little more than a sheep, or a pig. No one cares how badly we are treated, or what happens to us. All we're here for, as far as they're concerned, is to make their lives easier."

"But...Gerudos are all women, aren't they?" Gemyn asked, recalling what little she had learned about them in the few years she had been allowed to attend school. "How do you have children if not with Hylian men?"

"The myth that one in a thousand Gerudo births is a man is a myth," Lia explained. "It is more about one in ten. The men are kept separate, secluded, and used solely for breeding purposes. When they reach the age of thirty, or start to become rebellious – whichever occurs first – they are...disposed of."

"That's awful!" Gemyn cried out in disgust.

Lia shrugged. "It is not such a bad life. They are kept as pets, praised for giving strong children or doing as they are told. They are pampered. Bought and sold for pedigree like horses. I should have liked to have been a man, although as a half Hylian I would have been left out at birth. Any male not a Gerudo is murdered on sight. Although, perhaps that would have been preferable to my life as a slave, beaten and spit upon for no reason other than that my father was an animal who used my mother for his own pleasure."

Gemyn felt nothing but pity for Lia, and she shivered a little as she imagined the sort of life that Lia was painting a picture of. It made all of her problems seem like nothing, piddling little drops of rain compared to an ocean of sorrow. She was ashamed of herself. "Did you ever find out who your mother is?" she asked softly.

"Yes." Lia said shortly. "And I believe she knows I am her daughter, although she can never admit to it." She paused for a moment. "Anaya."

"Anaya?" Gemyn asked, thunderstruck. "Your - your master? She's your mother?" Gemyn felt sick. "What kind of person would force their own daughter to be a slave?"

"A Gerudo." Lia sighed.

"And what's more, a slave under her own command!" Gemyn was outraged. That would be like finding out that Mistress Aylwin was her birth mother. What a horrible thought.

"So you see the flaws in our society as well," Lia commented. "When I found out the truth, I grew angry. I vowed that one day I would break free. I stopped letting the anger show when she would taunt me, calling me a filthy half-breed. I don't know if she knows the full truth…but sometimes, when I look at her…I think I see it in her eyes. I see myself in her face, and I know it is true, as much as I wish to deny it. She is my mother. I wish it was not so….but it is."

Gemyn sat back quietly, thinking about her own life. Sent to live on a farm and be worked half to death by a miser and his wife, forsaken by her own mother and father. Was her situation so very different from Lia's? _Yes,_ She told herself firmly. _My mother would never have sold me into slavery_. But a tiny doubt lingered in her mind. Why had her mother left her there? What had she done wrong, other than be born?

"Did you find out who your father was, as well?" she asked softly.

Lia took in a sharp breath. "No." she said after a moment. "It was forbidden. And anyway - there was several men. Any one of them could have fathered me."

Gemyn was filled with a hundred more questions, but something in Lia's tone told her not to ask. It was obvious that this story was difficult for Lia to share, and there was still a lot of hurt that she hadn't come to terms with. Gemyn could understand and respect that - and so she kept her silence.

"Someday…" Lia said. "Someday I will stand face to face with her, and I will call her mother. And then I shall relish her horror. I will bring to light her sins, as well as mine…how she had a child with a Hylian. Her shame will be great. And my revenge will be sweet."

Gemyn felt a yawn coming on and tried to hide it - she didn't want Lia to think that her story was boring, but she was tired. Lia noticed the yawn despite Gemyn's efforts to hide it and stretched back. "We have talked enough for now. It is time to rest. We will leave at sunset."

Their clothes had dried during their conversation, and Gemyn gratefully pulled her dress back on. Despite the fact that it clearly meant nothing to Lia, Gemyn could not make herself comfortable around the Gerudo knowing that she was naked in front of a near stranger.

"What if we're found here?" Gemyn asked sleepily, lying back and closing her eyes. Already her mind was shutting down.

Lia spoke as if from a long ways off. "We will jump out and let the river carry us into Lake Hylia. But pray that does not happen, for it will make our journey ten times more difficult."

Another thought drifted across Gemyn's mind as a warm, velvety darkness drifted over her. "What about - " she yawned loudly " – what about the horses?"

"They will return to the Fortress, either by themselves or with the guards who will find them," Lia replied. "We could not take them with us this deep into the falls anyway." Gemyn did not response, and Lia, glancing over at the girl, realized she had fallen asleep without hearing the answer to her question. A tiny smile quirked her lips, and she curled up herself close to the fire, letting her mind go blank and eventually carry her into the world of dreams.

Gemyn herself had disturbing dreams. Her mother's face swirled before her eyes, blurred and out of focus. Babies cried and screamed, and her mother sobbed, begging forgiveness for abandoning Gemyn. Then the face changed into that of Anaya's - even though Gemyn had only seen her face for a moment, she knew it was her - and she laughed cruelly, motioning to others as she scraped her two curved blades together, making a bone-chilling noise that would come to haunt Gemyn in nightmares for months.

She awoke to the sounds of a scuffle. At first she thought it had been part of her dream, and she stretched, wincing at her sore muscles. Hard rock wasn't the best for sleeping on, she'd quickly discovered. The sun was still in the sky, but it was nearing the western horizon. In an hour or two, it would be night. Gemyn blinked, wondering what it was that had wakened her.

"Gemyn, run!" She heard Lia cry, and jerked her head up to see Lia being restrained by two other Gerudos.

Suddenly Gemyn was yanked roughly to her feet, and cried out in pain. Two more Gerudo guards held her in a death grip.

Anaya stepped up to Lia and spat in her face. "Filthy half-breed," she snarled. "Did you really think I wouldn't catch you?" she laughed. "Of course you did – you can't help being so stupid. It's in your blood," she taunted. Lia gnashed her teeth and glared at Anaya, her eyes cold with fury.

Something inside of Gemyn snapped. "Don't speak to her like that!" she screamed. "She's twice the woman you'll ever be!"

"Gemyn…" Lia whispered. She had obviously already been beaten, and mercilessly.. Both of her eyes were slowly turning purple, and her face was beginning to swell up. Something about the way she held herself, even as the others restrained her, indicated that she was suffering from internal trauma as well.

Anaya advanced on Gemyn like a lioness stalking her prey. Her golden eyes bore fiercely into Gemyn's, who forced herself to stare back. "How dare you?" she thundered. "Filthy Hylian!" She backhanded Gemyn so hard that Gemyn was torn from the grasp of the Gerudos holding her and fell to the floor of the cave. Her cheek was on fire, and it stung so badly that tears came to her eyes. She put out a hand to steady herself, and touched only air.

It was then that she remembered Lia's words – if they should find us, jump into the falls. Before anyone could stop her, she had jumped to her feet and hurled herself out into the rushing roar of water. With all of the Gerudos staring, thunderstruck, at the entrance to the cave, no one saw Lia smile.


	7. VI

_Link._

He came awake instantly, his eyes snapping open to gaze at the shadows dancing solemnly over the ceiling.

_Link._

This time he sat up in bed, looking around for the source of the voice calling his name so softly, so demandingly. It sounded so familiar.

"Zelda?" He asked uncertainly. "Where are you?"

_Link._ _Go to Lake Hylia. _

"Who'll meet me? Zelda!"

He waited for a reply. Nothing. He made an appealing figure, sitting bolt upright in his bed, hands clutching the sheets so tightly that his knuckles gleamed white in the moonlight shining in through the window. His golden hair was tousled by sleep and flopped down over his eyes.

With a groan, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulling on a green wool tunic and leather boots. He was used to this - having to go from sound asleep to fully alert at a moment's notice. When Zelda called him, he obeyed. Time had no meaning.

He slipped out of the dark house and into the stable in complete silence, where he saddled Epona with the ease born of hours of practice and much repetition. He swung up on her broad back, putting fleet-footed heels into her sides and starting her forward at a gallop. Several lights clicked on in the sleeping houses of Kakariko Village as he went past, but he ignored them all and headed for the gates. Going swiftly, he could reach Lake Hylia shortly after daybreak. He didn't know why he had to go to Lake Hylia, but obviously it was important if Zelda was sending him there. He didn't expect easy answers. Zelda never gave them.

* * *

It was almost morning at the lake. A shriveled old man sat outside of his hut watching the sun rise over the hills. The rushing water of the Hylian Falls was behind him, and he listened to its gentle rushing as the horizon turned from dark blue, to pink, to light sky blue. If you had been asked to describe this man, the first thing you would say was old, for that's what he was. He had a few tufts of snow-white hair protruding from under his blue cap. His skin was pale, showing the veins in his trembling hands. His face was wrinkled, small folds set in bigger folds of his leathery skin. His eyes were a deep blue, clouded over with age so that when you looked into his eyes it seemed that they were hidden by a fog.

Despite his fragile appearance, he was a tough man. He had lived at the lake his whole life, and was known only as the Scientist. He had no other name. He had no need for companionship, for he had his work, and he had the lake. That was all he wanted, and all that he needed.

This brings us back to the moment. The Scientist sat outside of his hut watching the sun rise. The moment was peaceful. A lark sang sweetly in a tree, and everything was quiet.

The Scientist heard Link coming long before he saw him. The rhythmic hoof beats echoed over the water, growing nearer with each passing second. He turned and gazed down the long road that led from the lake out to the plains, awaiting the sight of his old friend. After several minutes, the dark shape that was Link riding Epona came into focus and he alighted on the ground near the Scientist's hut with the peeling blue paint, tossing Epona's reins onto the hitching post and coming to greet the Scientist.

"Link," said the Scientist warmly, shaking the young man's hand. "Good to see you, son. What brings you to the Lake this early in the morning?"

"I had a vision," Link said without preamble. "Zelda spoke to me. She told me to come here - I'm not sure why. All she said was, 'Go to Lake Hylia."

The Scientist frowned. "Interesting, interesting..." he mumbled. They stood together on the ridge where the hut stood, overlooking the Lake. The Scientist took a deep breath of the sultry evening air and smiled at the serene beauty that surrounded him. "Lovely, isn't it?" he asked softly. He loved Lake Hylia with every breath of him - and for the life of him, he could not imagine why he was the only one to make his home on it's pristine shores. Of course, there was the man who ran the fish pond on the far side of the Lake, but he didn't count. He didn't live here, after all - he only worked here. The sun was sinking slowly over the horizon, and a coyote howled off in the distance. The sky had changed from a calm blue to a dark red, and the Lake reflected this color. The blood-red note seemed slightly ominous, however, and the Scientist felt a slight discomfort, although he couldn't have said why.

Suddenly a loud scream pierced the air. Both Link and the Scientist spun around.

"What was that?" Link asked, looking around wildly. The scream came again, louder this time.

The Scientist narrowed his eyes and searched the area for the source of the noise. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark shape come spilling over the falls and slam hard into a rock. "There!" he shouted, pointing to the dark shape floating in the water. Link sprinted down the slope and leapt into the water, launching into a powerful front crawl that took him to the figure in mere seconds. From the way the figure had gone limp when it hit the boulder, the Scientist knew that it had been knocked unconscious. He took his walking stick and hobbled down to the edge of the water, where Link had pulled the person ashore.

It was a girl of about eighteen, and she was bleeding badly - she must have hit her head on the rock. Already the sand around her was stained with blood. "Bring her up," the Scientist ordered, all kindness gone from his voice as the urgency of the situation appealed to him. Link lifted her easily into his arms and carried her up the slope into the Scientist's hut, laying her gently on his cot. Blood was pouring from her head, and he could see from the way it didn't spurt, but merely trickled, that her pulse was very, very weak. He knew he would have to work quickly if he wanted to save her.

He took a thick piece of cloth and pressed it to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. After several minutes, he carefully removed it and found that the flow of blood had stopped save for a small trickle. Now for the tricky part.

"Stay unconscious, girl." He muttered to her as he prepared a needle and thread. "This will hurt a lot less if you do." Link looked pale, but stayed close by, handing the Scientist instruments as he called for them. The Scientist cleaned the cut as best as he could and began to close the gaping wound on her head.

* * *

"Link, did Zelda say anything about this girl?" The Scientist asked quietly after he had finished cleaning her wounds.

"No," Link said. "All she said was to come to Lake Hylia."

"Do you suppose this was why she wanted you to come here?"

"I don't know," Link admitted. "I thought...perhaps you would know."

The Scientist shook his head. "I know nothing more than what you have shared with me, Link." He said regretfully. "I suppose we will have to wait until this girl awakens to find out more. Perhaps she knows something."

Link sighed. "That does seem to be the best option."

The Scientist smiled. "Well then, let's have something to eat. I doubt that she will wake before morning, so you may as well settle in. I have a spare pallet you can sleep on." And with that, he moved towards his tiny kitchen and began preparing a meal for the two.

* * *

It was the pain that woke her. Her head was throbbing like someone was inside her skull and was smashing a hammer around, trying to get out. She groaned and put a hand to her head. A sharp pain greeted her and she whimpered in pain. When she brought her hand away, it was sticky with blood, and panic began to envelop her.

She tried to sit up, but grew dizzy and had to lie down again. Moving only her eyes, she tried to look around. Had the Gerudos caught her? Was she back at their fortress? _Breathe, Gemyn._ She told herself. _This isn't the Gerudo fortress. The walls aren't sandstone, they're wood._

A loud scuffling noise startled her, and she turned her head, a scream building in her throat. It was an old man in a blue hat and blue robes. He was smiling at her.

"Awake, are you?" he asked.

Gemyn began to cry weakly. She didn't know what was going on, or who he was, or what he was going to do to her. Why did her head hurt so badly? Had he done something to her? She didn't even know how she'd gotten here.

He laughed softly. "Don't be frightened of me. I am the Scientist. You took a nasty spill off of the Falls, and cut your head. I sewed you up - that's why your head hurts. You've been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours now," he explained.

"Where...where am I?" she asked groggily.

"Lake Hylia."

At the words, a dim memory came back to Gemyn. "So I made it?" Relief flooded through her, but a second after that relief came the guilt. She had left Lia all alone with Anaya and four Gerudo guards. "But - Lia. We have to go back and get Lia!" Gemyn tried once more to sit up, but the Scientist was at her side, gently pushing her back to the bed. She began to sob like a frightened child at his touch and attempted to push his hand aay.

"Lass, don't cry. You're safe. I won't ask you any questions, and I won't tell anyone you're here if you don't want me to."

"Lia. We have to get to Lia!" Gemyn cried again, growing close to hysterics. What had they done to Lia? Was she alright? Had she managed to jump into the Falls, as well?

"There, there." The Scientist took her hand and patted it reassuringly. "I'm sure this Lia is going to be just fine. And if you need to go find her, you can do just that. But for right now, you've got to lie still and not worry yourself - you lost a lot of blood, my dear, and you're still very weak. You can't go saving anyone just now. So try to relax, and soon you'll be well enough to go find your friend."

"No," Gemyn whimpered. "No, you don't understand. They'll kill her! I have to go save her!" But he wasn't listening to her. He was treating her like a child, like a lost, frightened child. Her head ached excruciatingly.

"Of course you will." He shuffled off and returned a minute later with a cup full of a strange, sweet-smelling liquid. "Drink this. It will numb the pain." Gemyn took the cup to her lips and drank deeply, expecting a sweet tasting drink to accompany the smell. What she got was the most horrible tasting liquid she'd ever drank, and she choked and gagged and spit it back into the cup.

"It is called Hochle," the Scientist said, even though she hadn't asked what it was. "It's a form of medicine I invented - it numbs pain, promotes healing and causes sleep. I know it tastes horrible, but it will help."

"I can't sleep. You don't understand, _they're going to kill Lia_!"

"And you won't be much help to her if you can't even sit up, now will you?" he replied calmly. "The sooner you get better, the sooner you can go to Lia."

Gemyn sealed her lips and refused to drink any of the vile liquid as the Scientist put the cup to her mouth. Growing impatient, he held her nose shut until she was forced to open her mouth to breathe. Crying, gagging, she choked it down, hating that calm old face more than she'd thought possible.

He patted her hand once more. "Sleep, child. You need your rest. When you wake, you will feel much better - and you can go find your Lia. I promise."

Already Gemyn could feel the effects of the drink. Her eyelids felt unbearably heavy. She fought the drug, determined to stay awake, but it was like trying to stay afloat in quicksand. Slowly, silently, she drifted off into a dark, dreamless sleep. Throughout it all, the Scientist sat by her side, monitoring her vitals and waiting to be sure she was asleep before letting himself quietly out of the house.

Link was nearby, brushing down Epona.

"She woke up," The Scientist said quietly as he approached Link.

"How is she?" Link demanded, putting his full attention on the Scientist.

"She will live," the Scientist said. "She was rather distraught. Kept saying she had to go save someone named Lia - do you know such a person?"

"No," Link said. "But it sounds like a Gerudo name. Why would she want to save a Gerudo? And how did she wind up in the river?"

The Scientist held up a shriveled hand to stop Link's questions. "There will be time for that later. She lost a fair amount of blood, and she needs rest. When she is feeling stronger, she can give us her story. Until then..." he held his hands out, palms up, in an expression of uncertainty. "I dosed her with Hochle so she can sleep."

"When will she be awake?"

"I should think by tomorrow morning at the earliest."

Link repressed a frustrated sigh. "I'll camp here tonight again, then."

"Supper?" the Scientist asked cheerfully, gesturing Link back inside the house. Link entered, his eyes immediately falling on the unconscious girl lying in the Scientist's bed. Blood stained the pillow and sheet, and her face looked sunken, waxy. The Scientist was right - she _had _lost a lot of blood. He sank down into a chair and watched her breathe as the Scientist bustled about in the kitchen, making tea and frying fish.


	8. VII

Link wasn't quite sure how it had come about. One minute, he had been lying on the floor in the Scientist's hut, punching at his pillow and attempting to sleep on the hard floor, listening for sounds of breathing in the darkness from the unconscious girl, and the next he found himself seated in a serene, peaceful garden with the sun glinting on the white marble walls and a soft wind stirring the tulips and buttercups into a sweet-scented frenzy. There was a gentle brook circling the garden, and the gentle laughter of the rushing water was pleasing to the ear, creating a sense of music in the air although there was none.

"Hello, Link."

Link shook his head violently and stared at Zelda as though she were an apparition - surely she had not been seated beside him in the grass a moment ago, had she? There was a shy, almost innocent smile on her lips that extended to her eyes - she radiated purity and sweetness, looking more like a child than the ruler of a kingdom.

"Am I - am I dreaming?" Link asked uncertainly. It didn't feel like a dream - the sun overhead warmed him pleasantly, and he could feel the breeze kissing his skin as it wafted through the flowers and sent eddies of fragrance into his nostrils.

Zelda laughed softly, and her laugh was like the wind through the flowers, the sun in the sky, the water in the brook. "You are and you aren't," she said after a moment. "You are here - but you are also at Lake Hylia."

Link didn't understand, but he was used to Zelda speaking in riddles, and merely memorized her words so as to repeat them later, and try to puzzle out what she had meant. "And why am I here?" he questioned.

"You were good to go to Lake Hylia, as I had said. If you hadn't, surely Gemyn would have drowned, and all would have been lost."

"Gemyn?"

Zelda laughed again. "That is her name."

"But why did you want me to save her?" Link pressed, still unsure as to what Zelda's motives were.

Zelda played with a buttercup, smoothing the silky petals between her fingers before making a reply. "I need her to save me," she said finally.

"Save you? What are you talking about?"

Zelda met Link's eyes and he was astonished to see the fear that lurked in the depths of her blue, blue eyes. "From the Lady."

"Who?"

"She is going to revive Ganondorf and take over Hyrule."

"_What_?"

"Have you heard the legend of the Aquemini?"

"Zelda," Link said sternly, growing frustrated with her lack of information. "Stop changing the subject. Who is this lady? Where is she? And what has she done to you?"

"Gemyn is the Aquemini."

"Answer me!" Link shouted. "Who is this lady?"

But a strange mist was descending over the sun, blotting it out until Link and Zelda sat in shadows, which grew steadily darker until he could barely make out her face.

"Gemyn is the Aquemini." Zelda repeated, her voice a dying whisper.

"Zelda! Come back!" Link called desperately as the last of the light faded. "Zelda! _Zelda_!"

"Link!"

"_Zelda_!"

"Link! Wake up, boy, wake up!"

Link felt someone slapping his face and blinked rapidly. The Scientist's worried frown swam in front of his eyes. "I saw Zelda," he said, as the Scientist leaned back to allow Link room to sit up. "She said there was some lady, she's going to revive Ganondorf and take over the world, and Gem - that girl - she's the one who has to save Zelda." He squinted against the bright rays of morning sunshine coming through the window and burning into his retinas.

The Scientist was gazing at Link with a bewildered, yet curious expression on his face. "What else did Zelda say?" he asked after a moment.

"She said something about the Aquemini. The legend of the Aquemini. Do you know it?" Link asked sharply, seeing the shock of recognition on the Scientist's face.

"The Aquemini?" The Scientist repeated faintly. "Zelda mentioned the Aquemini? _Are you sure, boy?_" His hands grasped at Link's shoulders and shook him roughly.

"Yes!" Link cried, tearing himself out of the Scientist's grip. "She said - Gemyn is the Aquemini."

"Gemyn?" The Scientist looked as if he might faint.

"Yes, Gemyn - Zelda said that that was the name of the girl."

The Scientist stood abruptly and began pacing the floor, running his hands through his hair and muttering wildly to himself, looking for all the world like a mad man. Link watched this crazed pacing for several minutes before he could stand it no longer, and grabbed at the Scientist's shoulders, holding him still.

"What?" he demanded. "What is the Aquemini?"

"It - it is the legend that foretells the death of the three Goddesses," the Scientist said faintly. "The end of the world."

Link tore his hands from the Scientist's shoulders as though he had been burned, and they stared at each other with fear written plainly on their faces. And then, almost as if she were a magnet and their heads were iron, they simultaneously turned to look at the girl who lay sleeping in the Scientist's bed. Her eyelids were twitching, and they both felt sure she was moments away from waking up.

"Her?" Link whispered. "She can't be."

"Zelda is never mistaken, Link. You know that."

Link's mind refused to take it in - this girl, the girl he had pulled out of Lake Hylia not even sixteen hours ago, was destined to be the death of the Goddesses, was fated to destroy Hyrule and the world? It didn't seem possible. And if she was - why had Zelda said that she needed Gemyn to save her?

Gemyn was making soft mumbling noises now, as she sighed and her hands went up over her head as she stretched in her sleep. In the middle of her stretch, her eyes snapped open. She silently took in the scene - Link and the Scientist watching her with fear and apprehension, and sat bolt upright, clutching the dark wool blanket to herself with all the modesty of a shy young girl.

"What's going on? Who are you?" she demanded, trying to keep the quiver of fear from her voice. "Where am I?"

She seemed to remember none of her conversation with the Scientist from the night before, but he was not surprised. The drink he had given her was designed to produce heavy, dreamless sleep - and in combination with her terrible head injury, he felt sure that some memory loss was to be expected.

"Try to relax, dear." He said gently. "You've suffered a terrible head injury - we pulled you out of the Lake and patched you up. You've been asleep for almost ten hours. How do you feel?"

His tone of voice soothed her agitation slightly, and she swallowed the panicky lump rising in her throat. "Um - I'm f-fine," she said.

"Do you feel dizzy? Sore? Achy? Tired?" The Scientist pressed.

She tilted her head experimentally, monitoring her own reactions to the movement. "No," she said finally. "I feel fine."

"How about hungry?" The Scientist smiled, knowing what Gemyn's response would be before she gave it, for she had the look of a hungry cat to her.

Gemyn merely nodded, and she swung her legs around to the side of the bed, allowing her head to clear itself of the cobwebs before attempting to stand. Once standing, she felt remarkably light-headed, and sank instantly back onto the soft mattress. "What happened to me?" she asked, looking from the Scientist to Link, who had yet to say a word to her.

"I've told you, my dear - you took a nasty spill over the Falls, and hit your head on a rock. You've got quite the gash, you know - I sewed it up for you last night." The Scientist explained once again.

Gemyn raised a hand slowly to her head, and her eyes grew round as she felt the patch of spiky stitches that extended nearly three inches from just above her right temple. She felt sick for a moment, as her fingers explored the wound, and yet she felt no pain - the drink she'd been forced to swallow the night before had contained a large dose of opium, which dulled the nerve endings. She simply sat there, touching the wound, and then, in a sickening rush, the memories of the last two days came back to her, and almost instantly she began to sob like a frightened child.

"Lia!" she wept. "I have to go save Lia!"

"Now, you're not going anywhere until you've had something to eat," the Scientist said firmly, handing her an apple. "Eat that - there'll be more in a little while, but for now that will have to suffice."

Gemyn shook her head, clutching the apple in her hand so tightly that her nails dug into the skin of the fruit and juice trickled slowly onto her fingers. "I can't - there's no time! We have to go to Lia!"

"Who _is _Lia?" Link asked, for he'd been curious about it since the Scientist had shared the story with him the night before. Gemyn snapped her gaze over to him, and instantly he regretted speaking - her eyes were as direct as laser beams, and they seemed to look right through him. He shifted uncomfortably.

"She's a - a slave. A Gerudo slave. She helped me escape, but they caught us, and I jumped into the Falls because she said we should do that if they caught us, but she didn't get away, and she said - she said, when we left the Fortress, if they caught us we were as good as dead, and _they have her_, and they'll kill her! We have to go save her!"

"Slow down," Link said, holding his hands up. "How do you expect to sneak into the Gerudo Fortress? Do you know how heavily guarded it is? We wouldn't get within ten miles of the place before we were shot down with flaming arrows."

"But -"

"And what's more, how did you end up there in the first place?"

"I -" Gemyn stopped, confused. She wasn't sure if she could trust these two men with her story - it was almost too far-fetched for _her _to believe, and she had experienced it. To give herself thinking time, she took a bite of the apple in her hand. Once the fruit was in her mouth, she realized just how hungry she was, and proceeded to devour it with great enthusiasm. When she'd finished, the Scientist was frying bacon, and the blond man was still watching her, waiting patiently for answers.

"I don't remember," she lied finally. "All I remember is waking up in a cell in the Fortress, and a guard had come to get me and Lia knocked them out, and we escaped out into the desert on a horse. We made it to the Falls, and there was a - a cave behind the Falls, and we climbed in there, and fell asleep, and when we woke up there was five Gerudos in there with us. One of them hit me, and I fell down...and then I jumped out of the cave before they could grab me again."

Neither of them seemed satisfied with her story, but thankfully neither of them pressed her for more. The smell of the bacon frying was growing stronger, and Gemyn's stomach growled impatiently. She kept her eyes on the Scientist's turned back, but could sense the blond man's gaze. It hadn't left her since she'd awoken. She attempted to ignore him, but her nerves stretched tighter by the second and finally she could stand it no longer.

"What?" she demanded angrily, swinging her eyes around to glare at him. He jumped guiltily and looked away.

"What yourself?" he countered lamely.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked forcefully.

"I -" his gaze flickered lightly to the Scientist, who shook his head almost imperceptibly. "Nothing."

Gemyn snorted indignantly. "Right," she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue.

The Scientist, sensing an argument, interceded quickly. "Breakfast is ready," he said loudly, his tone indicating that things could be settled later. "Come and eat, both of you. We have much to discuss today, and if I'm any judge of a situation, you will need all the energy you can get."


	9. VIII

Raobi smiled viciously down at the figure which lay crumpled and panting at her feet. "Had enough yet, half-breed?" she taunted cruelly. "It can end whenever you want it to...just tell us where the girl is..." Of course, Raobi didn't strictly need this information. She had sent two Gerudos to Lake Hylia hours ago to apprehend the girl there, for it was the only place the river went, and therefore the only place she could have ended up after jumping into the Falls. Even so, she wanted to humble this defiant slave. Break her. Make her beg for mercy.

Lia slowly raised her head to meet Raobi's eyes, trying not to show the effort it cost her. She deliberately and defiantly spat blood at Raobi's feet, her eyes blazing with hatred. "I would rather die." Her voice was low and choked with anger, but Raobi merely smiled.

"Undoubtably you shall, in the end," she said smoothly. "But first, you will give me what I want." She thrust her hand out, palm down, over Lia's prone body once more, using her magic to slowly crush Lia's capillaries. It caused excruciating pain and it took a very long time to die if used properly.

Lia curled in upon herself, trying to shut out the terrible, mind-numbing pain. She had never imagined agony such as this, had never known magic - something she considered beautiful and sacred - could be used for such horrible purposes. But in the core of her mind, in a place Raobi would never touch, she grew calm and centered herself. Pain and death were only a part of life, after all. And Raobi could torture her into insanity yet she would never betray her friend. Never lower herself to beg for life as Raobi wanted.

The pain receded as quickly as it had come, and Lia coughed and gasped, clawing at the floor in an attempt to raise herself from the dirt. She sensed, more than saw, Raobi's fury in her unwillingness to cooperate. It struck her as funny, and she began to laugh, a low guttural sound deep in her throat.

Raobi was taken aback at the sound of laughter, and it infuriated her. "If you value your life, you will tell me where she is!" she screamed at Lia, but to her amazement and dismay, Lia only laughed louder. She raised herself to her knees and locked eyes with Raobi, a twisted smile on her lips.

"You fool," Lia taunted. "Do you think I fear pain, or death? It is only hypocrites like you who fear that which is part of life." She drew back, and spit blood once more at Raobi, aiming for her face but hitting instead her chest.

Raobi felt the fury rise in her chest, and threw her hand out once more over Lia, this time crushing the capillaries with a speed and force that could kill in minutes. But Lia merely laughed. The more terrible the pain became, the harder she laughed.  
Finally, Raobi could take it no longer, and with an incoherent scream of wrath, she grabbed a golden cup from the table that stood to her right, and smashed it with all the strength she could muster into Lia's left temple. Lia was lifted from the floor where she flew several feet before sliding headfirst into the wall, unconscious.

Raobi was panting with rage and exertion. "Remove her from my sight!" she screamed at the two guards who stood attendance at the entrance to her chambers, as always. "I want her executed at dawn! Do you understand me? Go!"

The two guards hastened to do Raobi's bidding, for they knew from experience that when Raobi was in a rage such as this, she was liable to kill any who remained within her vicinity. They picked up the sagging body of Lia and carried her, between them, to the cell block where Gemyn had been held not even two days earlier. She was tossed in with little ceremony, and left alone in the darkness to await the dawn, when her life would be extinguished.

* * *

"She can't know, Link." The Scientist insisted in a sharp whisper. He and Link were standing near Epona under the guise of brushing down the horse. "The legend states that if she _knows _she is to change the course of fate, all we be ruined."

"So how do I get her to help me save Zelda if I can't tell her why she must?" Link asked incredulously.

"I don't know," the Scientist admitted. "But she must not know who she is."

"Hsssst!" Link hissed, jerking his head to the side. Gemyn was approaching. She was wearing the thin cotton shift that the Scientist had lent her, and had her arms wrapped around herself in an attempt to keep away the breeze that drifted over the lake towards them. It struck Link suddenly how small and fragile she was.

"I just wanted to thank you for everything before I left," she said to the Scientist.

"Leave?" the Scientist asked. "But Gemyn, you need time to heal. You must stay here; I insist."

"Thank you, but I have to go," she said seriously. "Lia was captured by the Gerudos. If it wasn't for her, they would have killed me. I have to go back and save her."

"Are you insane?" Link cried. "You can't possibly break into the Gerudo Fortress! They'll kill you before you get within five hundred yards! They have scouts everywhere. You'd be shot with fifty arrows before you even realized they had spotted you!"

"I must try," Gemyn insisted. "She saved my life. I can't live with myself if I don't at least try and save hers!"

"She's only a - " Link began, but stopped himself at the look on Gemyn's face.

Gemyn's eyes darkened. "Only a what?" She asked. "Only a _Gerudo?_ Well, that Gerudo saved my life! And I'm going to go after her! You can't stop me, do you hear? _You can't stop me!" _

"This is madness!" Link cried. "I won't let you do it. I won't!"

Gemyn opened her mouth to retort, but a sharp hiss through the air and a curious grunt from the Scientist stopped her words. Both her and Link turned to look at the him; Gemyn let out a shrill scream and stepped away, her eyes wide with horror at the still-quivering arrow protruding from the Scientist's chest. Link leapt forward and caught the Scientist as he began to fall, still making horrible choking noises, and lowered him gently onto the ground, his eyes on the horizon. "Gerudos," he said tersely, spotting the two figures clad in long black cloaks and sitting atop chestnut Gerudo horses on the ridge seventy or so yards away.

"Gemyn…" the Scientist wheezed, motioning weakly with one hand for her to come closer. Breathing heavily and trying to restrain her panic, Gemyn inched closer to him, placing her small, soft hand into his larger, heavily wrinkled one. "Go…" he began to cough violently, and Gemyn was terrified to see the specks of blood that blossomed from his mouth. She heard a metal scraping and looked up to see Link drawing his sword; somehow, the action galvanized her and she looked back down at the Scientist as the clash of sword on sword greeted her ears. "Save…Lia…" The Scientist whispered, and began to cough once more; a great gush of blood emerged from his lips. Tears began to flow down Gemyn's cheeks as the Scientist grew still and his eyes glazed over.

"N-no," she whispered, all anger erased from her soul. "NO!" She threw her small body over the Scientist's and sobbed into his shoulder; already the heat was ebbing from his body and he was growing cold.

"Gemyn!" Link roared, and Gemyn raised her tear-streaked face. "Get - in - the - house!" He was magnificent, Gemyn thought; a whirling mass of death. Although he was outnumbered two to one, it was clear that he was more than a match for the two Gerudos, who were just barely keeping up with him. Identical expressions of malice marred their dangerously beautiful faces as they slashed and hacked at him with their wickedly curved scimitars.

There was a spray of blood and a scream of rage; the first solider slipped to the ground and clutched at her stomach in an attempt to hold in her organs; her abdomen had been sliced open by Link's sword. Blood surged from the wound, soaking the ground around her; she shook violently for a moment before growing still. Gemyn felt herself grow dizzy with nausea and looked away, struggling not to cry out in fear or disgust. When she heard Link grunt in pain though, her head snapped around and her heart contracted with terror to see him lying on the ground with the Gerudo soldier poised over him, ready to cut his throat. The light reflected brilliantly off of her shiny blade, temporarily blinding Gemyn, who felt certain she was about to witness Link's death.

"Link!" she screamed; the Gerudo's attention was diverted from Link for a split second, which was all that he needed. He seized his sword in both hands and thrust it upwards into the Gerudo's stomach. She let out a disgusting gurgling noise, her eyes wide with surprise, and slowly fell to the ground, the light in her eyes fading as she collapsed in the dust.

Gemyn's cheeks were wet with tears as she stumbled across the bloody ground towards Link. Her own panicked breathing in her ears terrified her further, and she was unable to catch her breath. "Gemyn! Stop it!" Link said sternly, placing his hands upon her shoulders and forcing her to the ground. "We're fine, we're safe - the Gerudos are dead. They aren't going to hurt you."

Gemyn struggled to contain herself, and after several minutes, she was able to regulate her breathing. The sickening dizzy feeling departed, and she looked up at Link with a shaky breath. "Th-thank you," she said. "I - the Scientist -"

"He's dead," Link said, his voice catching in his throat. "Mercifully it was quick."

Several more hot tears slipped down Gemyn's cheeks as her gaze slid over to the Scientist's prone body. She had never seen a dead body up close before, excepting the Gerudo guards that Lia had slain; somehow they did not count. It made her feel slightly sick and yet she was unable to look away. "He s-said…he told me to save Lia," she whispered, looking up at Link with a frightened expression in her eyes.

Link hesitated. He couldn't let her do this by herself. But it was suicide trying to infiltrate the Fortress. "You realize how dangerous it'll be, don't you?" Link asked, feeling that he could not go through with this unless she knew just what she was getting herself into.

Gemyn nodded. "I owe her my life, Link. I have to try. I _have _to. _Please_." The urgency in her voice appealed to Link's generally kind nature and with a sigh, he nodded.

"Alright. I'll help you. But we've got to have a plan."

Gemyn nodded; of course they had to have a plan. Did he think her that stupid? But now was not the time to argue. Every moment spent fighting was a moment where Lia was being tortured, perhaps even killed. One of the Gerudo's abandoned horses had made its way over to the scene of carnage. Without thinking, Link stroked its nose; then, in a flash, it came to him. "You said the Gerudos were after the both of you?" he asked.

"Yes," Gemyn said slowly, frowning. She thought she saw, dimly, where Link was headed and she wasn't sure she liked it.

"Alright. Here's what we're going to do," Link said confidently, automatically assuming the leadership role with an air of assurance that made Gemyn want to slap him. "I'll wear one of those big Gerudo traveling cloaks – and take their weapons – and maybe we can convince them that I'm one of them and I've captured you and I'm bringing you back to the Fortress. They'll be occupied taking you to the dungeons, leaving me free to go and find Lia." He considered for a moment. "We'll have to take their horses, and leave Epona there. Too many of the Gerudos know what she looks like, and might realize that it's me."

Gemyn stared at Link in silence for several long moments before regaining her powers of speech. "That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard in my life!" she snapped finally. "You want to throw me back to the Gerudos? How the hell do you know that they'll put me in the same dungeon as Lia? How do you know they won't kill me on the spot? And won't they realize that you're, I dunno, a _man_ the second you start to speak?"

Link flushed a dark red color. "Well, what's your plan then?" he snarled. "Shall we just walk in and say, 'Excuse me, may we have Lia back?'" He raised his voice to a high-pitched mocking imitation of Gemyn's voice, and then scoffed as if to say, 'What do you know anyway?'

Gemyn glared furiously at him. "There has to be some other way!" She began pacing restlessly back and forth, her mind working frantically to come up with some way for the two of them to sneak, unseen, into the Gerudo Fortress. The more she thought, the more she realized – much to her dismay – that Link was right. This _was _a stupid idea. For a fleeting second she thought that maybe they should abandon this foolish attempt to save Lia. What good would they do Lia, or anyone else for that matter, if they got themselves killed in a suicide rescue mission?

The instant this thought occurred however, Gemyn was racked with guilt. A complete stranger had risked her life to get Gemyn out of the Fortress, and this was how she planned to repay that kindness? Abandoning Lia, and leaving her to a cruel execution at the hands of women who hated her simply for her error of birth?

"Fine," she said finally, turning to face Link but refusing to make eye contact. "But what happens after they take me to the dungeons?"

"Don't worry about that," Link said. "I've been to the Fortress before; I know my way around. There's an underground passageway that only the highest Gerudos are allowed to know about. Once they take you in, I'll make for the stables and from there, sneak in and head down to the dungeons to meet you and Lia."

"How have you been there before?" Gemyn demanded suspiciously. "Lia told me that men are executed on the spot."

"I...helped them with something. Three years ago. But when Raobi was made the leader of the Gerudos, she destroyed my pardon. I'm not allowed there any more than any other male. I can tell you the story some other time," he hastened to say as Gemyn opened her mouth once more. "But right now, we need to focus on getting out there."

Gemyn swallowed nervously, and nodded. "So what happens if they try to kill me on the spot?"

"They won't, unless you try to fight them." Link assured her. "Gerudo law dictates that ritual execution must occur at daybreak – the exact moment that the sun rises over the horizon. If we get there by late afternoon, or even this evening, we will have several hours to escape before you and Lia are executed."

Cold fear twisted Gemyn's stomach into a knot. "And what if Lia is already…" she couldn't say it.

Link's face was like stone. "You have to decide if that's a risk you're willing to take. This is your little adventure, after all."

Again, that little voice in the back of Gemyn's head whispered how much easier – and safer – it would be to abandon this attempt. She pushed it away. "I am," she said bravely, but Link heard an unmistakable quiver in her voice. Some of the anger he felt towards her leaked away as he saw the terrified determination in her face.

"Let's get going, then," he said tersely – though perhaps not as tersely as he might have had he not looked in Gemyn's face. "I'll have to tie your hands to your saddle, if we're really to make you look like a prisoner. Is that alright?"

"I suppose," Gemyn said apprehensively. "But – we wouldn't have to do that right now, would we? Couldn't we just…wait until we're closer and then stop and tie me?"

Link quirked the corner of his mouth up ever so slightly in what could be considered a smile. "That's good thinking," he agreed. "I'm sure I wouldn't fancy being tied to a saddle for six hours, either." He rubbed his hands together for a moment, then became business-like once again. "Alright. I'm going to prepare the horses. Will you go into the Scientist's house and pack us something to eat and drink?"

Gemyn nodded, and turned to go into the house, when she caught sight of the Scientist's crumpled form lying in the grass. "We…we should b-bury him," she said softly. "Before we go. It's the right thing to do."

Link, who had already reached for the bridle of the nearest horse, turned slightly and caught the look of pity on Gemyn's face. His eyes then slid to the Scientist as well, and a deep wave of remorse rushed over him. "You're right," he sighed. "We can't just leave him here. Or those Gerudos, either – despite the fact that they tried to kill us."

It would take hours to dig three graves, though, and Link knew that time was of the essence. There was a garden plot nearby that the Scientist had grown vegetables in – though he hated to do it, the ground was soft there, and would take far less time to dig. A shovel stood beside a mouldering old scarecrow in the patch of earth, and he gingerly picked it up. "See about packing us something to eat," he called to Gemyn as he pushed the shovel deep into the soft earth.


	10. IX

Twilight had her paints out and was gently brushing dusky watercolors over the sky as the sun sank slowly over the western horizon. The sands shimmered as the heat they had stored up over the long, hot day were released back into the atmosphere. A lone Gerudo cantered her horse up to another sentry, raising her arm in the customary salute as she did so.

"News?" the second Gerudo asked.

"One of the soldiers Raobi sent after the witch has returned; she bears a prisoner on her mate's horse, her hands bound to the saddle. They are headed for the Fortress."

"Good. Raobi shall be pleased. Return to your post."

"Aye."

The sentries drew apart, and the first nudged her horse back in the direction from which she had come. The second sentry turned the opposite direction and spurned her mount to a gallop as she went to relay the news to the next sentry in line. And so it was in this way that Raobi learned of Gemyn's capture an hour before she arrived, and was there to greet her when a cloaked Gerudo led her, stumbling, hands bound by a rough length of rope, to the front steps of the Fortress.

"So," Raobi crowed triumphantly. "The witch returns. And what has happened to your partner?"

"Dead at the hands of this little bitch," Link croaked, deliberately rasping his voice to disguise his obvious maleness.

"And what is wrong with your voice?" Raobi asked suspiciously.

"She hit me in the throat. All I need is a hot drink."

"Very well," Raobi said, keeping her eyes on Link. "Take the witch to the dungeons," she ordered the two guards who accompanied her. "And you –" she said, pointing at Link, "Take care of your horse and then meet me in my quarters. We have much to discuss." Link bowed as gracefully as he could muster, taking care to keep his hood over his face. Raobi's hand strayed temporarily to her blade, but she seemed to think better of it, and stalked back inside the Fortress without a backward glance. Her guards grabbed Gemyn roughly by the upper arms, one on each side, and frog-marched her in after their mistress. She twisted to look back at Link, a desperate look on her face.

_Don't worry, _Link tried to say. _I know what I'm doing. _Now if only that were true...

He took the horse's bridle and led the exhausted creature around the side of the Fortress to the stables. Instead of taking him inside, Link tossed the reins and tossed them over a hitching post and then, after making sure that nobody had seen him, hurried around the back of the stables and set off on foot into the desert.

Nabooru had told him years ago that there was a secret passage leading out of the Fortress reserved for the leader and her personal guard, in case of an uprising and the need for a secret getaway. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Gerudo elite – there was only five people at any one time who ever knew of its existence. Link didn't know exactly where it was, having never taken it, but Nabooru had told him of its general location – a mile north of the Fortress, the door cleverly concealed under the sand of a large, inconspicuous sand dune. Once he was roughly a mile out, he began searching for signs of the door, but by this time the sun had set and it was very dark. Blindly, he got on his hands and knees and crawled along the side of the largest dune he could fine, feeling for a door, but with no success.

Panic began to build up in his stomach, corroding his certainty. Had Nabooru lied to him? Had he just sentenced Gemyn to death at the hands of the cruel desert woman? "Goddess, help me," he muttered desperately, his hands swimming wildly through the fine golden sand.

A sudden breeze blew up, lifting Link's blond hair off of his face. He looked up towards the sky and watched as a dark scudding cloud skittered across the sky and revealed the face of the moon. Its silvery glow lit up the desert so that the sand appeared like a million shards of glass; it glittered dangerously as he sat on hands and knees and looked. A sharp glint of light caught his eye fifteen feet ahead, and he snapped his head around to see before scuttling over to check. What was it? A piece of glass? A broken sword hilt? Ahhh! Link sighed with satisfaction and relief. It was the very tiniest tip of a brass door handle. Link smoothed away the sand and beheld a wooden trapdoor. "Thank you," he murmured to whatever Goddess had been listening, and used the hilt of his sword to smash the lock before yanking the door open and falling inside.

The tunnel was as dark as midnight, but Link knew that there would be no twists and turns until he reached the Fortress. He set his left hand on the tunnel wall, his right firmly grasping his sword, and set off walking as fast as he dared.

* * *

Once she was safely within the confines of the Fortress, Raobi intercepted the guards carrying Gemyn to the dungeons. "Bring her to my quarters," she ordered, ignoring their looks of confusion. Raobi was fully aware of the execution laws, but she was in no mood to obey them with such a dangerous prisoner. Lia was different – she was a Gerudo, even if only half-blood. The Goddesses would be displeased if she did not abide by the laws for her own people. Gemyn however, was not a Gerudo, and clearly a dangerous witch who had to be disposed of _immediately_.

Once inside her private chambers, Raobi grabbed Gemyn roughly by the hair and forced her to the ground. "Tell me your plans, witch!" she snarled. "Why have you come back?"

Gemyn cried out in pain as a large handful of hair was ripped from her scalp. She did not answer Raobi, however; her mind was whirling to come up with a plausible lie. She could not tell Raobi the truth, that they'd come for Lia – if she did, Raobi would surely have the guard in the dungeon doubled, or tripled, and then Link would never get her out.

"Tell me!" Raobi shrieked, thrusting her hand out and forcing the same magic on Gemyn that she'd tortured Lia with that very morning. Gemyn began to scream, painful shrieking screams that echoed along the sandstone walls as her capillaries began to slowly collapse, one by one. She collapsed on the floor and curled into a ball, trying to push away the excruciating pain.

"Stop! Please! PLEASE!" Gemyn begged, tears of agony sliding down her cheeks.

Then, just as suddenly as the pain had began, it stopped; Gemyn was left with vague numbness in her fingers and, as she wiped at the tears on her cheek, realized that it was not tears; it was blood. Fear and shock coursed through her. What exactly was Raobi doing? Before she had time to think, she was snatched up again by her hair and forced to stand. Raobi's eyes were an inch from Gemyn's, and there was a cold fury in her eyes that sent chills up and down Gemyn's spine.

"Now tell me your plans, witch," Raobi said. "And perhaps I will be merciful and end your life quickly. Undoubtedly you will tell me in the end; it is your choice if it is now or after hours of this torture. You can decide."

Gemyn swayed slightly on her feet. She absolutely could not tell Raobi that Link was going to get Lia. "We've come to assassinate you," she spat finally, nearly choking on the words; she could taste blood in her mouth.

Whatever Raobi had been expecting, it wasn't that. The shock of Gemyn's words nearly caused her to release her death grip on Gemyn's hair. She quickly regained her composure however, and her cold eyes narrowed to slits. "_Who _is coming to assassinate me?"

"The – the man who brought me here. He disguised himself as a guard and is going to sneak in the back way and come kill you!" There was a slightly triumphant note in Gemyn's voice now; she was almost enjoying the lie. Each sentence came easier than the next. "He hadn't planned on you bringing me here of course, we were going to meet up in the dungeons and then sneak up here together. But no matter; he'll find his way to you eventually and rescue me."

"I don't believe you!" Raobi shrieked, her voice vibrating with fear and anger. "No outsider knows of the Passage! You are lying!"

"Fine, don't believe me! I'd rather you be unprepared when he comes to kill you anyway!" Gemyn shouted back, gaining strength at the sight of Raobi's loss of composure.

"Guards!" Raobi howled. "Bring me the ceremonial tools! _Now!" _

"But Mistress-"

"Do as I say! Did you not hear the witch? There is a traitor somewhere in the Fortress, and I do not intend him to get his witch back! She must die, _immediately_! Bring me the tools, and double the guard in the dungeons! Go! Go!"

The guards nearly tripped over themselves in their hurry to leave the room and do Raobi's bidding. They had never seen her built up to such a fury, and thanked the Goddess that her anger was not directed at them.

* * *

Lia lay stretched out on her back, one hand behind her head, staring blankly up at the ceiling in her cell in the dungeons. She was attempting to meditate, and prepare herself for the death that awaited her in the morning. Lia was not afraid to die; since childhood she had lived shoulder-to-shoulder with it in the slave quarters. She considered herself lucky, in fact, to have escaped death for so long. So many slaves had died for much lesser crimes…Lia had seen Gerudo masters kill slaves over nothing at all. As a half-breed, Lia knew that she should never have been allowed to survive as an infant and although she did not know why the Goddesses had chosen to spare her, she was thankful for the twenty years they had given her.

A soft scuffling noise close by made Lia prick her ears up. Her eyes, which she had allowed to drift close, snapped open and she lay perfectly still, listening hard. The scuffling grew louder, and she raised herself up onto her elbows. The noise was coming from behind the wall to her right.

"Who's there?" she asked forcefully.

It was, of course, Link on the other side of the wall. He had reached the end of the passageway. He froze at the stern quality of the Gerudo voice, unsure of how to respond.

"I can hear you! Speak!" Lia called again, now with her ear pressed up against the wall.

Link decided to take a chance. If he was in the dungeons, where he had been told the tunnel came out, then there were good odds that he was talking to Lia. If not…well, he'd have to take that risk. They were all dead if he didn't, anyway. "My name is Link. I'm with Gemyn, and we've come to save Lia."

Lia's heart leapt into her throat at his words. "This is Lia. How did you come to be behind the wall in my prison cell?"

Relief flooded through Link. "There is a secret passage – but there's no time to talk! I can't get out. Is there any way to open the door from your side?"

With a frown, Lia ran her hands along the wall, searching for a secret switch of some kind. There was nothing, however; the wall was as smooth and inscrutably blank as the rest of the sandstone. "Nothing," she said. "I don't-"

"Oy! Who are you talking to?" shouted the guard who had been positioned at the entrance to the cell block.

"Hush. Not a word or we're both dead!" Lia called to Link through the wall. "Why don't you come and see?" she taunted the guard. "Or are you frightened of the poor little slave girl?" Her jibe worked, as she had known it would – for there was nothing a Gerudo hated more than to be called a coward. There was a slight jingling noise as the guard strode forward.

"Care to say that again, half-breed?" she whispered, a dangerous sharp note in her voice.

"I said," Lia drawled in a deliberately disrespectful tone. "Are you afraid of the poor, _unarmed, _helpless little slave girl?"

"So the little half-breed needs to be taught a lesson in manners," the guard growled.

"And you think _you _can teach it to me?" Lia laughed in the guard's face. "You're too much of a coward to even open the door!"

This was all the provoking that the guard needed, and in an instant, the door was open and the guard was charging at Lia with a murderous light in her eyes. "Filthy half-breed! How dare you call me a coward!"

Lia was ready for this, having been expecting it, and rolled out of the way of the charging guard. Before the guard had caught her balance, Lia was on her feet; she brought her elbow up to the guard's face, breaking her nose; blood flew everywhere as the guard howled her pain and rage. No longer content with simply beating Lia into submission, she reached for her sword. Lia was again too quick for the guard, though, and found her knees kicked out from under her before she could do more than unsheath her blade. Lia wrested the scimitar from the guard's grasp and in one quick, fluid motion, slit the guard's exposed throat.

The guard let out a wretched, wet gurgling noise as blood poured from her severed carotid. Lia stood, chest heaving with exertion, and watched as the light in the guard's eyes slowly dimmed and life left her body.

Almost instantaneously, there was a cracking, grinding noise as the wall slid slowly to the side. A very dirty Link stumbled out of the dark entrance, looking with some surprise at the dead guard on the floor and a calm Lia standing over her, blade held loosely in hand. "What – what-"

Lia was almost as surprised as Link, but recovered more quickly. "Blood magic," she said quietly. "The door must have required a living sacrifice to open."

Link felt sick. How could Nabooru not have told him of this? If he'd known, he would have taken his chances sneaking in a side door of the Fortress, or even the front entrance – Goddess, anything but this! Lia saw his look and was annoyed.

"Do not look at me so. We should have had to kill her anyway to escape. How else did you plan on getting me out of my locked cell? Strange, really…why have a secret passage open into a cell?"

"To prevent anyone who isn't supposed to be using it from getting anywhere, I suppose," Link suggested, brushing dust from his tunic.

"Ah, yes, that would make sense. They would want to hold them here until she could find out just why they were using the passage in the first place."

It was then that Link really took a good look at Lia, and a gasp escaped from him before he could stop himself. "What the hell did they _do _to you?" Lia's eyes were completely bloodshot, and trickles of dried blood coursed down from both nostrils and ears, and the corners of her mouth.

"Raobi used her magic to crush my capillaries," Lia said shortly. "I will be fine – unbeknownst to her, I have learned the arts of healing magic and was able to repair them as fast as she crushed them. Truthfully I should have been dead many hours ago. But that is not important right now. Where is Gemyn?"

"You mean she's not with you?" Link asked, surprised.

"Of course not. Why would she be here with me?"

"But – Gemyn was the distraction. The guards brought her here, to the dungeons, and then I came by the secret passage and you were both supposed to meet me here. We needed some way to fool the guards into letting us get close to the Fortress!"

Lia gaped at Link for a solid ten seconds, pure shock stilling her tongue. Once understanding hit her, anger flushed her tanned skin a dark rose. "You are the biggest fool in the history of fools!" she barked. "How dare you allow Gemyn to attempt something so dangerous? Raobi would _never _send Gemyn to the dungeons! She believes Gemyn to be a witch!"

"But even so!" Link argued. "She cannot be executed until daybreak, so we have time to find her!"

"I swear to Nayru, I will cut out your heart and _eat it! _What do you know of Gerudo law? It applies _only_ to Gerudos! Raobi can execute Gemyn anytime she feels like it – for all we know she is already dead!"

Link felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach. "Goddess," he whispered, as the full realization of what he had done hit him.

Lia shoved Link to the wall, her forearm pressing against his throat and crushing his windpipe. "If she is dead, so help me Goddess, I will slay you with this blade if it is the last thing I do." She shoved him away, her lip curling in disgust as he choked and gasped for air. "Let's go." And without waiting to see if he followed, she strode through the cell door, which was still swinging open from when the unfortunate guard had unlocked it.


	11. X

Gemyn lay at Raobi's feet, in much the same position as Lia had only hours earlier. She was barely conscious; not possessing Lia's ability to heal herself, she had succumbed to the torture much quicker than Lia had. Trickles of blood ran from her ears, eyes, and mouth and she had lost all feeling in her hands and feet. Raobi stood over her, a cruel smile on her beautiful face. She seemed like nothing so much as a cat who has finished toying with a mouse and now plans to execute the final, killing blow.

There was a soft knock on the door. "Enter," Raobi called, her voice raspy with excitement. This witch, this disgusting witch who had desecrated the Desert Colossus, would pay dearly for her transgression. Raobi's heart thumped with anticipation of seeing the filthy blood spill onto the ground.

Her servants entered the chamber at Raobi's bidding, heads down in respect for their mistress, bearing with them the golden instruments engraved in the Old Hylian that were to be used to dispatch of the witch. Raobi took hold of the long, thin blade and ran her thumb lightly over the sharp edge. Almost as if by magic, a thin line of blood appeared on the skin that had touched the blade. Raobi marveled at the sharpness of it; she had used next to no pressure at all, and the blade had cut into her flesh. She relished the thought of pressing the blade roughly onto the witch's smooth, creamy skin and seeing the blood pour from her, ending her life and her curse.

The servants, in the meantime, were preparing the altar at which Gemyn was to be murdered. Against the east wall of the Sacrificial Chamber sat a long rectangular block of sandstone, stained dark red from the many executions that had taken place on it. The altar was draped in a plain white cotton cloth, which would serve as a shroud for the body after the ceremony was complete. Shelves were carved into the entire eastern wall in a maze-like pattern; unlit candles and incense sat on these shelves waiting to be lit. One of the servants set about doing this while the other hoisted the inert Gemyn onto the altar, laying her on her back and pulling her arms and legs straight. She grabbed Gemyn's ankles and held them tightly; the other, having finished lighting the candles, pulled Geymn's wrists over her head and grasped them just as tightly.

Raobi took a small bottle of oil from a shelf. "In the name of Nayru the Wise, the merciful Goddess, the great Mother to all Gerudo, we cleanse ourselves and raise our hearts to you. Protect us from the witch; keep her dark magic from entering our hearts and turning us from your Path, the one truth Path." She anointed the golden blade with oil, rubbing it down until it gleamed in the flickering firelight, and then traced a line of the fragrant oil down her forehead and the bridge of her nose.

She took the golden blade once more in her hands and held it high over her head, ready to plunge it into Gemyn's heart. Before she could bring her hands down, one of the servants released her grip from Gemyn's wrists and, quick as lightning, leapt at Raobi and tore the blade from her grasp. It clattered harmlessly across the floor.

"Link! Now!" the servant called, and the door burst open with a loud _bang. _A golden-haired man clothed in green carrying a glittering sword came charging in. Without thinking, Raobi drew her own scimitar and there was a sickening clang of metal on metal as she leapt into battle with Link.

The other servant had released Gemyn's ankles and pulled out her sword to attack Lia, who had magicked her face to make herself appear to be Raobi's servant – the real one was slumped, unconscious, outside the chamber from a sharp blow to the back of her unsuspecting head. Lia dodged the guard's high kick and flung herself forward, catching the guard around the waist and toppling her to the ground.

Link was furiously parrying attack after attack from Raobi, who seemed almost drunk with rage. She was determined to slaughter them – every last one of them! How dare they enter her Fortress, her Temple, and think that they could get away with it? "I will have you flayed alive, I will see the skin peeled from your back and fed to the dogs!" She screamed, advancing on Link with the force of a juggernaut. "I will crush you, one bone at a time, so that it takes weeks for you to die! I will rip your eyes and tongue and voice out, so you cannot scream, I will - " The words died in her throat, for she could think of no torture gratifying enough for these traitors, these filthy Hylians. She swung her scimitar wildly. Link, who had been forced to back up under the pressure of her attacks, rolled desperately away from her. But she was like quicksilver, and was after him in a moment, and he barely had time to stand before she was on him again, and he could only parry and wait for a moment to catch her unguarded –

Lia, looking up from where she was wrestling furiously with the guard, saw her chance – Raobi had her back turned from them. She dug her knee into the guard's sternum, and the guard howled with pain. Lia could feel, more than hear, the chestbone cracking as she reached swiftly for the dagger bound at the guard's ankle, and flung it with wicked, deadly accuracy at Raobi's unguarded back. At the same moment, the guard – seeing Lia's distraction – grabbed her by the hair and flung her to the ground.

"Guards!" she bellowed, dashing through the door before Lia could get to her feet. "Assassins! Thieves! Raobi has been murdered!"

"Link!" Lia screamed. "We must go! Now!"

Link remained in a fighting stance, chest heaving with exertion. Raobi lay on the ground before him, still breathing; but it was clear that she was dying. Each breath was growing more and more labored, and even as he watched bubbles of blood frothed to her lips – the dagger must have pierced her lung –

Lia's screams brought him back to the present. "Grab Gemyn!" He cried, running for the door. "I'll clear the way - " He listened hard outside the chamber and heard footsteps coming from his left. "This way!" Lia thumped out of the chamber after him, Gemyn slung over her shoulders in a crude fireman's carry.

They swept through the Fortress as quickly as their legs would carry them, listening for the sounds of the pursuing guards and choosing an opposite path whenever the noise grew too close. Before long, they had reached the roof. Lia was panting for breath. "There is no way down," she gasped. "We are lost!"

Guards on the opposite side of the Fortress had seen them, and with shouts and yells gave away their position. There was soft hissing in the air, and arrows lit with fire began to rain down all around them. The fire spread quickly in a circle around them, and they were trapped. Guards were pouring onto the roof and advancing on them with scimitars drawn. Lia began to pray that her death would be quick.

"Lia! Grab on to me! _Now!" _Link shouted, fumbling in his shirt. Lia did as he said, using one arm to grasp his arm tightly while the other kept Gemyn from slipping to the ground. She had barely time to notice the blue ocarina Link was putting to his lips before time seemed to slow infinitesimally and the clear, high notes of the ocarina filled the air. And then everything was dissolving around them – or no, _they _were dissolving – and they were flying through the air and the fire and the shouting was disappearing behind them –

And then they were in a forest, a deep dark quiet forest with the silvery moon casting sharp shadows all around them; and Lia was dizzy and her knees began to buckle - Link gave a shout of surprise and caught both her and Gemyn before they hit the ground.

Link lowered Lia and Gemyn carefully to the ground, looking around. They were deep in the Lost Woods, as he had known they would be. The entrance to the Forest Temple towered over their heads, inaccessible as the grand stone staircase leading to the doorway had crumbled centuries ago. Dark thoughts of the battles he had fought in there filled his mind, but he shook them away; that was three years ago, he told himself. Ganondorf is dead. The monsters he sent to the Forest are long gone.

Gemyn gave a weak cough, and Link was alarmed to see a trickle of fresh blood stain her lips crimson. She was dying; he had seen enough death –_ caused _enough death to know what was happening. She needed help, and quickly. He agonized for only a moment; he did not want to leave Gemyn and Lia alone in the dark of the Lost Woods, but he could not carry them both and navigate the tricky forest. Better to go alone, quickly as possible, and return with Saria.

He set off, running as quickly as he dared through the dark, silent woods. Shadows flew up at him, razor-sharp, playing tricks on his eyes. The maze beyond the Temple Grounds was even darker for the moonlight could not penetrate the thick hedges. He went by memory alone, keeping one hand against the side of the hedge at all times. Left, right, left, straight…and suddenly, he was out and the moonlight was bathing the ground in its soft, silvery glow. He thanked the Goddess that it was a full moon.

Once out of the clearing and back into the actual woods, however, it grew darker. He rushed on as quickly as he was able, his hands out in front of him to stop a stray branch slapping him in the face. This worked, for the most part, but he grew cocky and was rewarded with a long scratch along his cheek from a thorny bush. _I must be getting close to the end, _he thought desperately; he had no idea how long he'd been wandering. Time did funny things in the Lost Woods; five minutes seemed like five hours, days turned to weeks, and yet the sun would never rise.

Finally, after what seemed like days – but what was probably only an hour or two – he stumbled out of the woods into the village. "Thank Farore," he muttered, naming the Goddess of the Earth, and the patron saint of the Forest. A thin pink line was beginning to span the horizon. It was growing lighter by the minute. He did not stop to catch his breath, but hurried through the village to Saria's hut. There was no light within, but he knew that she often rose early. With no thought of waking the neighbors, he pounded hard on her door. "Saria!" He called, panting. "It's Link! Hurry, I need your help!"

There was a scuffling on the other side of the door and Saria pulled it open. "Link!" She exclaimed in surprise. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"There's no time," Link said, taking her hand and pulling her outside. "We must hurry – I've brought a – a friend with me, she's injured – she's dying! I need your help!"

Saria saw the urgency in his face and heard it in his voice. The delight of seeing her old friend vanished and she nodded. "Where is she?" she asked crisply, shutting the door behind her.

"The Temple Grounds."

They set off back through the Lost Woods, but with Saria by his side the trees somehow seemed to melt away from them; the trip back to where Gemyn and Lia lay, still unconscious – though Lia was beginning to stir – took them hardly any time at all, compared to the treacherous journey Link had made through the dark.

Saria knelt at Gemyn's side and pulled a small vial of brown liquid from beneath her cloak. Whispering soft words that Link could not make out, she tilted the vial and three drops fell into Gemyn's open mouth. Gemyn coughed violently; but no more blood trickled from between her lips.

"She is very sick," Saria said in a low voice. "We must get her back to my house, and quickly, if you want her to live."

At that moment, a groan erupted from Lia and she opened her eyes. Silently, she took in the tableau before her: Gemyn lying unconscious with her head in the lap of a child, and Link standing by looking anxious, a long bloody scratch down his cheek. "What…?"

"I brought us to Kokiri Forest," Link said quickly, heading off her questions. "It was the first place I could think of – the Gerudos will never come here, never even think to look for us here. But Gemyn is dying. We need to move. Can you walk?"

Lia nodded; she understood the gravity of the situation and knew that questions could wait. "I believe that your method of transporting us to this place is what caused me to lose consciousness," she said briskly as she rose to her feet. "It made me quite dizzy. I imagine it is because I am not used to the sensation." She proudly disdained to reach for Link's outstretched hand, offered to help her up.

"It does that," Link said, dropping the proffered hand and reaching down to pull Geymn into his arms. "Let's go."

The trip back out of the Woods – Link's third in as many hours – passed swiftly as well, with Saria leading the party. She did not trip, stumble, or move to dodge a single tree branch; everything seemed to bow to her as they filed behind her through the forest. The sky was quite light by this time, and birds had begun to chirp to each other from the treetops. Soon full daylight would be upon them.

They reached Saria's house and Link laid her gently on Saria's bed. Saria began pulling items from shelves with frantic speed. Link stepped back to watch the proceedings, knowing that he would only be a hindrance; not a help. Lia, however, moved to Gemyn's side and spread her hands, palms down, over her inert body.

"Lia, what are you doing?" Link began to ask, but Lia silenced him with a hiss.

"I am healing her," she said calmly. "Please remain quiet."

Saria stopped pulling bottles from the shelves and turned to watch. She had, of course, heard of Gerudo magic – but she had never seen it done. She moved silently to Link's side and they watched as a soft white light began to emit from Lia's hands and spread over Gemyn's body. It was amazing to behold; before their very eyes, the deathly pallor of Gemyn's skin faded, and returned to its creamy, rosy complexion. Her breathing, which had been ragged and labored, returned to normal and her chest rose and fell with deep, life-restoring breaths. The purplish-blue color of her fingers and toes disappeared, and they could tell by the relaxation of her face that she was no longer held unconscious by pain; she was sleeping peacefully.

Lia sat back, exhausted. "It is done," she said quietly. "I need to rest. It is hard work, healing."

"Link has a home here," Saria said. "Though he has not lived in it in many years, the Kokiri have kept it well-maintained. You should find it suitable – Link, do you agree?"

"Of course," Link said. He only had the one bed, but a pallet could be found somewhere, he was sure. "It's not far, Lia. Come with me." He nodded towards Saria. "Goodnight. Please come get me when she wakes."

The sun had fully risen and dew sparkled on the grass as they left the house. Drooping with exhaustion, Lia followed Link; he was right when he'd said it wasn't far; they were walking for only a minute before they reached the tree that had been Link's home as a child. Lia climbed up the ladder and Link followed. "Bed's there," he said, pointing unnecessarily. "Kitchen's through there and there's a commode just down…" He stopped speaking, as Lia had proceeded to ignore him, lay herself on the bed and fall asleep in an instant. "Goodnight," he muttered to himself, and lay down before the fire on the hard floor, intending to sleep himself.

Concern for Gemyn would not let him rest, however, and after a few minutes he rose again and stole quietly out of the house back to Saria's hut. Saria was pulling a blanket tenderly over Gemyn's sleeping form. She looked up at him and smiled; she had been expecting him to return. "Get some sleep, Link," she said gently. "There is nothing you can do for her until she wakes."

"I'd like to stay close," he replied. "Is it alright if I stay here? I can sleep on the floor; I don't mind."

"Of course," Saria said. "There is a pallet stored underneath my bed."

"But where will you sleep?" Link asked stupidly; now that the crisis of escaping the Fortress and saving Gemyn's life had passed, exhaustion was creeping up on him. He was having trouble focusing his eyes.

Saria laughed softly. "Link, it is morning! I have slept through the night, and will go about my day. Sleep, and I will watch over you."

Link barely got the pallet out from under the bed before he collapsed on it, asleep in seconds.

It was late afternoon when Gemyn found herself swimming back to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself in a perfectly circular thatched hut. There was a window on her right, and a bright shaft of golden sunlight poured into the room. She could see dust motes twinkling and dancing in the beam, and through the window she saw emerald-green treetops waving softly in a breeze. She turned her head to the left and beheld a young girl of no more than ten, keeping vigil in a rocking chair, a book in her hands. She had short green hair and green eyes, and was dressed in what looked like the same sort of tunic that Link wore – thick, green cotton with white leggings underneath. She had not yet noticed Gemyn's stare and continued to read placidly. Despite her young appearance, Gemyn sensed that she was not a child; there was a maturity to her that made her appear both infinitely wise and supremely naïve at the same time. A trickle of fear ran down her spine; was this some sort of heaven? Was she dead? Had Raobi succeeded in killing her?

The last thing she could remember was the horrible, crushing pain of Raobi's torturing magic. She vaguely recalled being lifted onto an altar, and candles lit all around – but after that…nothing. The trickle of fear became a flood and she began to cry.

The noise attracted the young girl's attention. "Oh! You're awake!" She said in surprise, putting down her book and coming to Gemyn's side. "What is the matter, dearest?" her voice was gentle, and Gemyn felt reassured by her presence.

"I…am I…dead?" Gemyn asked, barely above a whisper.

A merry laugh escaped the girl's mouth. "Not at all," she said joyfully. "You were brought here by Link and your friend Lia, the Gerudo. They saved you from the Fortress." She brushed a lock of damp hair off of Gemyn's face with loving tenderness. "My name is Saria. I am the guardian of Kokiri Forest. You were dreadfully injured, dear. We were worried that we were going to lose you."

"What happened?"

"I'm not entirely certain. It would probably be best if Link explained everything to you; I know that he and Lia are anxious to see you. Shall I call for them?"

"Yes, please." Gemyn felt an excited bubble start in her stomach, and she found the strength to push herself to a sitting position. Lia was safe! They had done it!

Saria moved towards the door. Link and Lia sat just outside, gorging themselves on a late breakfast. They had awoken an hour or so earlier, and Saria had promised to watch over Gemyn while they ate, for she was sure it had been at least a day since they had last eaten. If they were to keep their strength up, they would need to eat. She had signaled for some of the Kokiri to bring food, although it hadn't taken much coaxing. The Kokiri knew Link, of course, and were thrilled at his return. A gaggle of them stood now, a few feet from Link and Lia, anxiously waiting for them to be done eating so they could hound them with questions.

Link turned automatically to look at Saria when she opened the door, and rose to his feet. "Is she awake?" He asked, his mouth full of bread. Lia turned as well, and looked expectantly at Saria. She looked slightly more dignified than Link, who was past manners and was stuffing his face with everything he could reach.

"Yes," Saria replied, smiling.

Link bolted from the tree stump he'd been sitting on, knocking a flagon of Forest Mead to the ground. He ignored it and rushed into the house, Lia close on his heels. The relief he felt at seeing Gemyn sitting up in the bed, smiling happily at the pair of them, knew no bounds.

"Hi," he said, pulling up a chair beside her bed.

Gemyn completely ignored him; she was looking at Lia with a proud smile on her face; tears glittered in her eyes. Lia moved towards Gemyn, stretching her arms out. They took hands, and Link could see the gratitude on Lia's face.

"You came back for me," Lia said, releasing Gemyn's hands and sitting on the end of the bed. "Forgive me, Gemyn…I did not think you would."

"You saved my life," Gemyn said throatily. "I couldn't leave you there after all you had done for me. But don't forget Link – I couldn't have done it without him."

Lia swung her eyes to Link, who shifted embarrassedly; if it had been up to him, Lia would be dead right now. Gemyn had almost died for his stupidity. He did not deserve her thanks. "I am in your debt, Link." Lia said quietly, bowing her head deeply.

"I – no, you don't have to…" he mumbled, looking at Gemyn. She was giving him a grateful look as well, and he felt thoroughly ashamed of himself. "Don't be nice to me!" he cried. "It wasn't me who wanted to go back – and Gemyn, I almost got you killed. You two should hate me."

"You saved us," Lia said simply. "We should have all died on that rooftop had you not used your ocarina and brought us here."

"What?" Gemyn asked, bringing her gaze back to Lia. "What's an ocarina?"

Link reached into his tunic and brought out the ocarina. It shone a pale blue in the sunlight. Gemyn's breath caught as she looked at it; the air around it seemed to shimmer. "It's magic, isn't it?" she breathed, reaching out her fingers to touch it. Link snatched it away from her grasp.

"Yes," he said. "I'm sorry – but I can't allow anyone to touch it."

"But it's – it's magic?"

"I can use this ocarina to transport myself to different areas of Hyrule, yes," he said uncomfortably; he did not like to discuss the ocarina's power with other people.

"I think you need to back up," Gemyn said slowly, still gazing at the ocarina in reverence. "What happened after Raobi took me away from you? The last thing I remember is…" she stopped. "Is her…torturing me."

Painstakingly, with many halts and questions on Gemyn's part, Link and Lia reconstructed the story of how Link had infiltrated the Fortress by using the Passage, how Lia had tricked the guard and killed her; and how they had made their way to the Sacrificial Chamber and knocked the knife from Raobi's hand at the last possible moment. Gemyn touched the area over her heart, shuddering at how close she had come to dying.

"And then, we brought you back to Saria's house and you know the rest of it," Link finished.

"But she's so young!" Gemyn exclaimed. "How can this be her house? She's a child – doesn't she have parents?"

Link and Lia chuckled affectionately. "The Kokiri are not children," Lia explained. "They are the guardians of the forest, and only appear as children. They are ageless."

"Most of them are several hundred years old," Link added. "Saria is the Forest Spirit – their leader, if you will. She is the one who converses with the Great Deku Tree, and governs the Forest Temple deep in the Lost Woods."

Gemyn digested this in silence. It explained the look of wisdom and maturity in Saria's face, despite her childish appearance. Her stomach began to rumble audibly at this point; she looked down at it in surprise, almost as if she had forgotten she had a stomach.

"Hungry?" Link teased.

"Ravenous." Gemyn said, and she was. She could have eaten a horse. "Is there anything to eat?"

At that moment, Saria entered the house, followed by two Kokiri. All three of them had their arms filled with bread, cheese and fruit. They brought it all to Gemyn, laying a wooden tray over her lap. She did not wait for them to serve her, but tore a hunk of bread from one of the Kokiri's arms and stuffed it ungraciously into her mouth, chewing with something akin to ecstasy.

Link and Lia graciously accepted trays as well, and resumed their breakfasts. Saria stood nearby, watching the three chat and laugh with a smile on her face. It was beautiful, she thought, to see new friendships blossoming from thin air.


	12. XI

The next day, Lia fell ill. A raging fever took hold of her and she began to drift in the dangerous waters of madness, mumbling to herself as she lay on a sweat-soaked pallet on Saria's floor. She tossed and turned, crying for water, a blanket, some ice for her head. She babbled in the throaty Gerudo language, words that her friends did not understand but caused them to cast each other worried looks.

"I believe it is exhaustion," Saria told Link and Gemyn after spending an hour examining Lia. "The stress of the torture she endured, coupled with the depletion of her magic, has made her supremely susceptible to disease." Saria said nothing of how concerned she truly was for Lia, knowing that the truth of the seriousness of the matter would only make matters worse for Gemyn. She swung her eyes to Gemyn with an uncharacteristically stern look on her face. "Gemyn, I want you to stay away from Lia until she is no longer contagious. You were greatly weakened by your ordeal as well – we cannot afford for you, too, to become ill."

"But - " Gemyn began, but Saria held up a small hand to silence her.

"I can see in your face that you have no desire to heed my words. But know, Gemyn, that if you seek to enter my home without my express permission, I will have you confined until your departure, or else remove you from my Forest."

Gemyn felt mutinous, but squashed the feeling as best as she could. "What if I just stand in the doorway and look?" she asked pleadingly, acutely aware of how strange it must look for her to be begging favors of a child – or at least, what appeared to be a child. Link and Lia might not see Saria that way, but Gemyn continued to have difficulty taking Saria seriously.

Saria's face softened. "I know you are worried for your friend," she said gently. "But until her fever breaks, for your own safety, you must keep away from her. I will give you hourly updates, if you wish – but you must not see her." Gemyn scowled, and Saria's voice hardened again. "Promise me, Gemyn." she said sharply.

There was a tense moment of silence during which Gemyn glared hatefully at Saria. Finally she said sullenly, "Fine. I promise." She knew she was acting like an immature little kid, but she couldn't help it; having to take orders from a ten-year-old was incredibly humiliating. She reminded herself that Saria wasn't a ten-year-old – she merely looked like one – but if only she didn't! Gemyn just _couldn't _respect her. It was ridiculous!

"Thank you," Saria said simply, and turned her attention to Link, who had been standing by silently throughout this entire exchange. "I can count on you to make sure Gemyn stands by her word, Link?"

"Of course," Link replied instantly. He could feel, more than see, Gemyn's angry stare. She was probably furious with him for not taking her side. As much as he agreed with Gemyn – that she should be able to see her friend – he also agreed with Saria. If Gemyn were to come down with the same illness that had crippled Lia, what would they do then? He needed Gemyn if he was to rescue Zelda. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Lia was expendable – Gemyn was not.

"Link, if you wouldn't mind, stay behind for a moment – I need to discuss some things with you. Gemyn, please return to Link's home and wait for him. He shouldn't be long."

Gemyn's face went pink with the unfairness of it all. She couldn't see Lia, and now she was being excluded from conversations! Hurt swelled up in her chest and she felt like crying. It was just like at home – no one wanted her around, no one wanted to talk to her, no one wanted anything to do with her! They'd all rather she wasn't there at all!

"Fine," she said, her voice quivering. "Fine! Have your stupid private conversation!" She turned and ran, stumbling over a tree root. They could hear the door to Link's house slam shut with a bang from where they stood. Link flinched at the sound.

"She will be alright," Saria said. "Poor child; she is a woman, and yet she is not. What a puzzling combination." She sighed. "Come this way, Link. I do not wish Lia to hear us."

Confused but interested, Link followed her.

* * *

Half an hour later, he returned to his home, bracing himself for Gemyn's wrath. She was pacing in front of the fireplace, apparently too upset to sit still. As soon as she saw him, she exploded.

"How could you just sit there and let Saria lecture me like I was three?" She cried, throwing her arms out. "How could you take her side over mine? I thought we were supposed to be friends! I thought you wanted me to help you with your stupid quest!"

"Gemyn," Link began tiredly, not sure of what he should say. He was so tired of her emotional outbursts; why couldn't she grow up and stop acting like a child? He understood that she was lost in a strange country, with no friends or family to speak of – save for Lia, he supposed – but that was no reason for her to act like such a spoiled brat. "Saria is looking out for you safety. She's not doing it to be spiteful."

"Still!" Gemyn began to pace back and forth furiously. "You could have said _something_ – Saria listens to you!"

"Saria listened to you, as well." Link said firmly. "She heard your words, and she would have heard mine, and she still would have done what she thought best – which is keeping you away from Lia until she is better! Do you want to get sick? Lie in bed all day, moaning and groaning and not able to tell if you're awake or dreaming?" Gemyn was silent, and Link pressed his advantage. "Do you?" He demanded.

"No!" Gemyn bit back. "But why couldn't I at least _look _at her from a safe distance? Why does _that _matter? How could I possibly get sick from just _looking _at her?" A sob threatened to erupt from her throat, but she held it back. "It's obvious – Saria hates me! Everyone here hates me! It's just like it was at home, just like it _always _is – no one can stand me, they just think up ways to get rid of me as soon as possible!"

"What are you talking about?" Like asked, genuinely bewildered now. "Don't you understand that it's because Saria cares about you that she doesn't want you to have contact with Lia? Do you really think that _I _don't care about you?"

Gemyn threw herself down on the bed and crossed her arms and legs tightly around herself. "You only care about yourself," she spat.

"You're a fool if that's what you believe," Link said sharply. "And as it's clear you don't want to hear what I have to say, I'm not going to stay here and be insulted. When you want to listen, and stop feeling sorry for yourself when you have no damn reason to, let me know." With that, he stumped out of the house, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Gemyn threw a pillow at the closed door, fuming. How dare Link talk to her that way? How dare they all treat her as such, like a child who didn't know any better, who had to be watched constantly to be sure she didn't misbehave? And above it all, they still expected her to go haring off and save their precious Zelda! Well, she wouldn't do it. They could go save Zelda all by themselves. She wouldn't stay another minute if this was how things were going to be. She'd find some way back home!

Her mind made up, she launched herself at the front door. To her dismay, it did not open – Link had locked it! He had locked her in! For a moment, she could not believe that he had actually done such a thing. He'd locked her in!

"Link!" She screamed, pounding on the door with both fists. "You come back here and open the door this minute! Let me out! Let me out, you – you _jackass_!"

There was no reply, of course. Gemyn hurled her body at the door, but to no avail. She was tiny, and frail, and the door was solid oak, six inches thick. Finally, she retreated back to the bed and threw herself down on it with all fury exhausted. When Link came back, she'd give him a piece of her mind! She fell asleep, rehearsing the words she planned to scream at Link over and over again.

Link regretted that he had had to lock Gemyn in, but he knew that it had to be done. Gemyn had a very childlike temper, and he could not risk her running away in a fit of anger. She could get lost, killed, or –worst of all – caught by the Lady. Then all hope of rescuing Zelda would be gone. Link could not allow that to happen.

After locking the door, he climbed down the ladder and sank down to sit between the roots of the tree that was his home. After a few minutes, he heard Gemyn try the door and then begin banging on it and shouting once she realized it was locked. He closed his eyes; there would be no point in returning when she was this worked up. Saria had advised him to let her sleep it off. Their conversation returned to him in a rush, and a shiver traced his spine.

"Link, I believe that Lia has fallen under the spell of the Lady," Saria had said once they were alone. "She is looking for Gemyn. She suspects that Gemyn is with us, but she cannot be sure; and unless she is sure, she will not move against the Forest. If Gemyn comes within Lia's sight, or hearing, the Lady will bring war and destruction to the Forest - she will stop at nothing to take Gemyn."

Link was aghast. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I cannot be completely certain," Saria replied. "But there are…signs. This is no ordinary illness, Link. Someone is using magic against her."

"But that could be any of the Gerudos," Link protested. "She killed Raobi – their leader. Surely they could have a vendetta against - "

"Link, you know as well as I do that magic is supposed to be dispelled by the Forest Barrier," Saria interrupted. "To reach Lia, here, would require…great skill, beyond that of any Gerudo. It could only be the Lady."

Link digested this in silence for a moment. "Why didn't you tell Gemyn?" he asked finally.

Saria sighed deeply, and a look of troubled regret flitted across her face. "I did not want to frighten her any more than she already is. The girl has a great deal of burden on her shoulders; perhaps it was selfish, but I did not care to add to it." She looked out across the Village, her face impassive. "Had I known how upset it would make her to forbid her access to Lia, perhaps I would have told her the truth…"

"Should I tell her?" Link asked hesitantly.

Saria considered this for a moment. "If you think it necessary," she said finally. "She trusts Lia, however…I am afraid that to tell her the truth would deprive her of that. She strikes me as one who has had very little friendship in her life. I think she is lonely. No doubt she will be very angry with you when you return to her, Link. Try to keep your calm, and remember that it is not _you_ she is angry with; she is simply afraid that we are going to leave her, or make her leave us."

Link had done his best to remember Saria's words when Gemyn was screaming at him like a shrew. When he felt his grip on his temper slipping, he had made the executive decision to step back for a while to allow her to calm down.

The thumping on the door stopped. He debated going back, but decided against it. Best give her some more time to herself; hopefully a good night's sleep would give her more perspective on the matter. So he lay there, nestled in between two great tree roots, until long after the moon had risen. An owl hooted softly somewhere overhead, and Link was lulled to sleep by the gentle whispering of a soft breeze in the trees. When he awoke, disoriented, the night was at its darkest, and he was cold. He climbed the ladder clumsily with hands and feet made stiff from cold and fumbled with the latch on the door. He was asleep again before his head hit the pillow.


	13. XII

The air in the crater of Death Mountain was almost thick enough to drink. Soupy clouds hung low over the bubbling lake of molten rock that roiled and gurgled angrily as seismic activity seized the Mountain. Lia found herself at the very summit of the Mountain, coughing as fine ash coated her lungs. Sweat oozed from every pore, evaporating before it could trickle down her body. She had grown up in the desert and she was used to heat; but not like this. She felt as if her bones were melting. Breathing was growing difficult and she knew that if she did not find safety quickly, she would die.

Without knowing why, she moved further into the crater, eyes screwed up against the stinging ash. She pulled the neck of her shirt over her mouth and nose to attempt to filter out as much of the fine particulate as possible – it helped, a little, and her coughing ceased.

_Turn back, you fool! _She told herself, but it was as if her feet were tied to strings, like a marionette, and she plunged further into the crater despite the suffocating heat that made her feel as if she were dying.

Gradually, she realized that her feet were, indeed, carrying her to safety. She stopped fighting the movement of her body and began to run towards the shining light before her – she didn't know what she would find beyond that light, but somehow she sensed that if she could only reach it before this heat destroyed her, she would be safe. There was safety in that light.

She reached the light and, laughing, fell onto cool marble. Her cheek pressed against the stone floor with delicious rapture; nothing had ever felt as good as this, she was sure of it. It was long moments before she looked up, and then her jaw dropped in astonishment. Orange-red flames cupped in marble wall sconces lit the walls with flickering light. The floor she lay on stretched beyond her and at the end of the path sat a bath filled with crystal-clear water. The light of the flames sparkled in the water, making it seem alive though not even the tiniest ripple marred the surface.

"A fairy fountain," Lia breathed, pushing herself to her feet and approaching the water with someone akin to reverence. She put out a hand to touch the surface of the water, but the air seemed to be solid around the pool; she could not bring her hands closer than a foot. This didn't worry her, however, and she was content simply to look at the water. The fountain could not be more than foot or two deep, yet she did not seem to be able to see the bottom despite the absolute clarity of the water.

Lia did not know how long she stared at the pool, but finally she drew herself from her reverie and turned to leave. To her utter astonishment, the way was gone. It was as if it had never been. She was trapped in the fountain. A twinge of panic – the first she'd had since finding herself here – resounded in her gut, and she turned frantically back to the pool. It was no longer empty.

With a yell, Lia hurtled herself away, landing awkwardly on her backside. Panting, she stared at the apparition in the fountain. It was a woman – but not any woman such as Lia had ever seen. She shook her head, trying to clear the confusion from her brain; one minute the woman looked like any other woman one would see in, say, Kakariko Village – albeit an extraordinarily beautiful woman – and the next her skin seemed to glow and she looked like…a Goddess.

Lia was filled with wonder. She did not know how, or why, but she had been chosen to view the Goddess. "Din," she murmured, throwing herself into a deep bow. Her forehead kissed the cool marble floor.

"Rise, my Lia…" Din whispered, and her voice seemed to emanate from the marble itself, though the Goddess' lips moved. "_Den'ara…_you must help…the Lady has taken my sisters, and she is coming for me…"

_Den'ara_…Lia did not understand the word, though she knew it was Old Hylian. "I don't understand," she murmured, keeping her face down.

"You are dreaming, _den'ara…_" Din whispered. "I cannot share more with you in this world…she will see, and she must not see…the Lady has much control in the dream world, _den'ara_, more than Outside. You must come to me…quickly…I have not much time left…"

"The Lady?"

"Come to me, _den'ara._ Come to Death Mountain in all haste. The fate of the world depends on you and your companions. Come to me!"

The mountain began to tremble and Lia, who had risen to her feet, screamed as the temple began to collapse around her. Rock cracked and tumbled to the ground. "Come to me!" She heard Din call as boulders crashed down around her, hiding her from view. "Come to me…"

A boulder the size of a house was tumbling towards Lia, and she put her hands up as if to ward it off –

* * *

It was the sound of a bluejay outside the window that first pulled Link back to consciousness. He grunted and flopped on his side, groping for the pillow to throw over his ears and block out the insistent trilling. Something heavy was holding the pillow down. Still half-asleep, he tugged at it for a moment before some of the fog left his brain and he opened one eye cautiously.

_Oh, Goddess._

It was Gemyn's head holding his pillow down. He swallowed, thinking hard. How had this happened? He'd locked Gemyn inside last night…and he'd fallen asleep leaning against the tree. He didn't remember anything after that, although he had a vague memory of pulling himself up the ladder in the middle of the night, groggy with sleep and cold. He must have fallen into the bed without thinking. _Curse me, this is bad…_

Shock at finding himself wrapped up in bed with Gemyn had cleared all the cobwebs from his brain, and he began to slowly edge his way out of the bed. It was difficult, however, as he had somehow contrived to tangle himself in the sheet as thoroughly as a swaddled infant. He grunted quietly, trying to pull the blanket off of his legs while attempting not to jostle, and awaken, Gemyn. Link would have found the whole thing comical if he were not so embarrassed by his own stupidity.

He flopped back onto the mattress, his brows furrowed in frustration. _How _had he managed to tangle himself so tightly in the blanket? He cast a quick glance at Gemyn to see if his struggle had woken her, but she was fast asleep. She had brought one hand up and her cheek nestled in her palm. Long eyelashes lay against her creamy skin, and her lips – Link only at this moment noticed how nicely shaped they were – were slightly parted. Her glossy brown hair was tangled by sleep and stuck up in an awkward, yet endearing manner. One thin strand of hair lay across her face. Altogether, she was a stunning vision and Link, though acutely aware that he could not be caught in bed with her, found he was unable to look away.

Her eyelids were beginning to flutter and still Link could not look away; he was entranced by her. He could not understand why he had not seen it before. Her eyes were open now, but from the way she looked at him, he was sure she thought she was still dreaming. _Run, you fool!_ He told himself, but he had to admit he did not want to. Her eyes were like constellations in the night sky - a deep blue, with flecks of gray, green, and hazel. They drew him in, and he was helpless to pull away. Her lips curved into a tiny smile and he was gone. He moved closer to her, one hand reaching out to trace the curve of her waist as his lips moved nearer to hers; still he could not look away from her eyes, those beautiful starry eyes that held him as surely as any Gerudo magic would…

She blinked suddenly, and all dreaminess faded from her face. She gave a short gasp and jerked away. "What are you doing?" she asked sharply, pushing herself away from him and sitting up.

The spell was broken. Link leapt away from Gemyn as if he had been electrocuted; his legs, still locked helplessly in the sheet, were useless and he fell onto the floor with a loud thump. He winced and cursed under his breath. The fall seemed to have loosened the sheet, and he quickly shed it before leaping to his feet. Attempting to appear nonchalant, he brushed his blond hair from his eyes.

Gemyn sat bolt upright in the bed, clutching the pillow to her chest as if she were naked and did not want him to see her. "What are you doing?" She asked again, not so much angry as embarrassed, he thought.

"Nothing," Link said defensively. Not for the world was he about to admit to Gemyn that her sleeping face had entranced him as nothing else ever had. "I must have…been disoriented when I came in last night. I apologize." He turned away from her so she would not see the flush on his cheeks. "It won't happen again."

Gemyn was just as embarrassed as he; she'd thought she was dreaming when she first opened her eyes and saw Link looking at her as if she were a Goddess. Had he been about to kiss her when she'd come to her senses? Her heart skipped a beat, and a trail of tingling warmth slid down her spine. Yes, he had. He had been going to kiss her. But she didn't want to kiss him! He didn't care about her – all he cared about was his precious Zelda. She'd imagined that look on his face. He certainly wasn't looking at her right _now_ as if he thought she were the most beautiful thing in the world – he wasn't looking at her at all.

"Let's just, pretend it never happened," she mumbled.

Link, his face turned away, winced. He'd thought, just for a moment, that she had been as entranced by him as he had been by her...but no. She'd been half-asleep, that was all. He nodded curtly. "That's probably for the best," he said stiffly. "I'll leave you to dress."

He turned towards the door, intending to leave; but before he could put his hand to the doorknob, a sharp rap sounded. Both he and Gemyn jumped slightly, and identical guilty expressions crossed their faces. Link swallowed his with dignity and smoothed his features to cool blandness; Gemyn turned scarlet and began chewing her fingernails. Link opened the door and Saria swept into the room, excitement making her eyes sparkle.

"Lia's fever has broken," she called joyfully. "She wishes to see you both, immediately. Come with me! Come!"

Relief flooded over Gemyn. She'd been certain that Saria had somehow _known _what had happened only moments ago. Sometimes Saria seemed to have a touch of a sixth sense – she just knew things. Gemyn didn't know how, but it was impossible to lie to, or keep a secret from Saria. She always _knew._

But Lia was well – and she wanted to see them! Gemyn determinedly shoved the disquieting memory of Link's hand on her waist from the forefront of her mind and concentrated on getting to Lia's side. She was first out of the house, with Link and Saria close on her heels.

They burst into Saria's house in a fever. Lia was sitting up in the bed, and there was the faint odor of stale sweat and unwashed bedding to the air. Gemyn wrinkled her nose slightly, but as she became used to the smell it failed to bother her, and she hurried to her friend's side. Despite having spent the last several days babbling to herself and sweating, Lia looked as fresh as she always did. Her skin, the color of pale brown sugar, was clean and dry. Her hair – that brilliant red that Gemyn secretly envied – was piled on her head in the Gerudo fashion, and looked as if it had been freshly washed. Dark eyes glittered in her skull, giving others the feeling that she could see right through them.

"How are you feeling?" Gemyn asked gently, seating herself on the bed beside Lia.

"As well as can be expected," Lia replied, her eyes on Saria. Saria seemed to understand what Lia wanted, and shut the door quietly. She nodded.

Lia's eyes skipped from Link to Gemyn and back to Saria. "I have had a vision," she announced without preamble. "Last night, Din called to me. She has sent for us; we must go to Death Mountain."

Gemyn's confusion must have shown on her face, for Saria began to explain. Obviously she had been told of Lia's vision already, for she did not share the look of surprise that Link wore. "Din is one of the three Goddesses of Hyrule," she said. "Along with Nayru and Farore. Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom, and is mainly worshiped by the Gerudo. Her temple is in the Gerudo Desert…you have seen it, Gemyn. Din is the Goddess of Power, and her temple resides in the crater of Death Mountain, at its summit. The Gorons are the only ones who can survive the heat of the crater, and so Din is though of as their Goddess. Farore is the Goddess of Courage, and her temple lies in Zora's Fountain where, as you can imagine, she is catered to mainly by the Zoras."

Gemyn's head was swimming. Gorons? Zoras? Why did every question she asked in this world lead to ten new ones? She shook her head, trying to stay focused. Now was not the time to go off on a tangent. "So Din…called you?" she asked carefully.

Lia nodded. "She called me…_den'ara._" She said. "I did not know what it meant…but Saria tells me it is ancient Hylian, and means 'daughter'. She said that the Lady had…taken her sisters. Farore and Nayru. She asked us to come to her, for she said in the dream world the Lady has much more control than here, and to tell me all I need to know would have been our undoing, for the Lady would have seen."

"So we need to go to Death Mountain," Link said. "We should leave immediately. Lia, are you well enough to ride?"

"Where is Death Mountain?" Gemyn asked, feeling a flicker of annoyance at the way Link automatically assumed command.

"North of here," Saria answered, gesturing with her hands. "There is a village at the base of the Mountain, Kakariko Village. It is a day's walk, perhaps two."

"I am well enough to walk," Lia said, using her hands to push herself from the bed. "I do not want to waste time. We should leave today."

Saria shook her head, fixing Lia with a stern glare. "You must have supplies, and that will take time to gather. You can be on your way by this afternoon, if you insist – but I should prefer you wait until tomorrow morning. Lia, you have been ill for days, and despite what you think you are not at full strength. If you insist on leaving today, I will not stop you…but _I _insist on you remaining in bed until it comes time for you to depart."

A mulish look crossed Lia's face, and she made no effort to lay back down. The corner of Saria's mouth dipped into a frown. "I want your word, Lia – otherwise I will give you no aide." It was obvious that she meant it; Gemyn gave Lia a look as if to say she understood how frustrating it was to be ordered about by a child. Lia scowled at Saria, but when she sank back down onto the bed she released the tiniest sigh of relief. She did not want to admit how tired she still was; but the prospect of resting for a while longer was a nice one.

"Link, if you would come with me, we shall see about finding provisions for the three of you. Also – Epona?" Gemyn did not understand the word; nor, apparently, did Lia. Link clearly knew what Saria meant, however, and nodded. Saria nodded as well. "Good. That will make things easier." Saria turned her attention to Gemyn next. "If you would return to Link's home and pack up the clothes you've been given, I will see to it that saddlebags are brought to you," she said smoothly. There was an air of confidence about her that made it clear she expected complete obedience. It irritated Gemyn ever so slightly, but she was as eager to be away as Lia and only nodded agreement.

One word stuck out to Gemyn though, and she frowned slightly. "Saddlebags?" she asked. "But we don't…have any horses…" There were no horses in the Kokiri Forest; the ones they had ridden into the Fortress had not been brought with them, obviously.

"Epona is my horse," Link explained. "She'll be here when we're ready to leave." Gemyn creased her eyebrows, obviously wanting more of an explanation than that, but Link didn't find himself in much of a mood for it. "Later," he said in an undertone.

"Let's get going, then," Saria said briskly before Gemyn could open her mouth. "If you plan to be away by this afternoon, we shall have much preparing to do. Link, with me please?" Link gave her a quick glance, then slid his eyes toward Gemyn. Saria understood the gesture and slipped out of the door. Gemyn made to follow, but Link caught her arm and swung her around to face him. She had a scowl on her face bitter enough to make him wince.

"Gemyn," he said in a low voice. "About this morning…"

"Forget about it," Gemyn said, a hint more icily than she had meant to. "It never happened. It was an accident." She strode off, back towards Link's tree, without looking back. Link watched her go, his mouth twisting in annoyance. _If that's how she wants to be…! _He shrugged to himself, and made to follow Saria. As he walked, a thought occurred to him and he chuckled ruefully to himself. There was one good thing about the incident that morning - Gemyn had completely forgotten to be angry with him for locking her in the house the night before.


	14. XIII

Gemyn returned to Link's house, doing her best not to grumble about being ordered about like an unruly child. Despite sternly telling herself _not _to, her eyes immediately fell on the wide log bed as soon as she entered the room. The pillow she'd lain on had a slight crease in the middle where she'd snatched it up and hugged it to herself when she realized Link had been in the bed with her. Link's pillow lay on the floor, a soft indent showing where his head had been. Swallowing the bitter lump in the back of her throat, she picked up both pillows, fluffed them gently, and placed them neatly back on the bed where they belonged. The sheet also lay on the floor, tangled tightly on itself; Gemyn couldn't believe how tangled Link had managed to get himself. She snapped the sheet out and replaced it on the bed as well, folding down the coverlet she hadn't needed the night before. She'd even kicked the sheet off, it had been so warm; perhaps that had contributed to Link's entanglement.

All evidence of the morning's encounter erased, she turned her attention to the chest at the foot of the bed that held several changes of clothes for both Gemyn and Link. The first thing she pulled from the chest was a long white nightshirt that she'd been given by the Scientist. When she'd leapt from the Falls after Raobi had tracked her and Lia to the cave, she'd been wearing a plain cotton dress. He had given her this nightshirt and had the dress burned, for blood had stained it and it had been completely unwearable. She crushed it against her heart for a moment, remembering his kindness. How she missed him. Strange, that she should; they had known each other only a day, perhaps two. Perhaps she'd latched on to him so tightly because he had been the one of the first people in her life to show her any bit of kindness whatsoever.

It was hardly suitable day wear, but it would certainly make a more comfortable sleep shirt than the clothes she'd slept in last night. The Kokiri had given her two sets of warm, emerald green woolen tunics and white leggings much the same as what Link himself wore. They were startlingly comfortable, if a bit warm. The brass belt buckle did tend to dig into her when she sat down, though. One of the tunics she wore now, having slept in it the night before. She changed into the fresh one and folded the other as neatly as she could before setting it aside.

The rough prison garb she'd been given to wear at the Fortress was thrown into the fireplace without a glance. Even if it had been made of the finest silk, she would not have kept it. It was a much-too-close reminder of just how close she had come to dying in that Fortress. It wasn't pretty or comfortable, in any case, and it was not much of a loss.

Lia had refused to wear a Kokiri tunic. Despite being only half-Gerudo – and a slave at that, purportedly hating the Gerudo and everything they stood for – she looked down on Hylian and Kokiri garb with complete and utter disdain. Saria had brought her a length of rough, off-white cloth that Gemyn thought might be linen, and Lia had sewn herself a pair of baggy breeches and a top that bared her shoulders and abdomen. It was the exact same sort of thing that Gemyn had seen the Gerudo wearing around the Fortress – although, she had commented, the purple that some of them wore was prettier. That had earned her a snap from Lia, who had retorted that only the guards and slave-owners wore the purple. Everyone else wore white, or brown. Lia's only other set of clothes were the ones she was wearing; Gerudo clothes similar to the ones she had made herself.

Link had two tunics folded neatly in the trunk. A third he wore at the moment, Kokiri green that matched the one Gemyn was wearing. The first tunic she pulled from the trunk was red. The hem was singed slightly, and the fabric smelled rough and charred. It also seemed to be warm to her touch, as if it had been drying by a fire. The second tunic fascinated her; it was a deep ocean blue, and seemingly made of wool though the fabric slid over her fingers as softly as silk, and just as cool to the touch. It smelled of sand and seaweed, and made her think of Lake Hylia. She glanced surreptitiously at the door before discarding her green tunic and pulling the blue one over her head. _I'll just wear it for a minute, _she told herself.

The fabric felt delicious against her skin, even better than it had on her hands. She felt as light as a bubble; She wanted to go swimming, to dive headfirst into ice-cold, crystal clear water and…

The door burst open as Link staggered through, his hands clutching bulky leather saddlebags. "Saria told me to bring these up for you - " he began, then stopped dead when he saw what Gemyn was wearing. She had leapt to her feet in surprise at hearing the door open, her hands fluttering nervously around her neck. Splotches of color appeared on her face and exposed collarbone; the tunic was much too big for her, and slipped down over one shoulder even as Link stared at her.

Consternation mingled with amusement spread across Link's face. "What – what are you doing?" he asked in a level voice, although Gemyn thought she could hear a tinge of laughter.

"Nothing," she said defensively. "I just – it was so pretty, and the fabric felt so nice – I wanted to try it on. I only had it on for a minute! I wasn't trying to steal it or anything!"

"I didn't think you were," Link said carefully, and there was definitely a hint of laughter in his voice this time. She had a guilty look on her face that put him in mind of a child caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar. "In any case – here's the saddlebags. Pack everything up as tightly as you can, we're going to have to fit all of our provisions in here as well." He dropped the saddlebags on the floor with a loud thump and turned to leave.

"What kind of fabric is this?" Gemyn asked, hastily stepping forward. "It looks just like wool – just like the one you're wearing – but it feels like silk. Nicer than silk! It's…amazing."

"It's a Zora tunic," Link said. "I got it for – for helping them a few years ago. "They have this way of weaving water into cloth, I'm really not sure how they do it." A mischievous grin split his face. "You should try swimming in it. It can make you breathe underwater, you know."

Gemyn tossed her head indignantly, as Link had known she would. His grin widened. "Don't be ridiculous," Gemyn snapped. "I'm sorry I put on your tunic, but you don't have to make fun of me. Do you think I'm that gullible? Breathe underwater!" She scoffed loudly and pulled the tunic over her head before reaching for her own green one. After the smooth silkiness of the Zora tunic, it felt as rough as a cat's tongue. Link hurriedly averted his eyes; she was not naked, but the thin undershirt she wore left very little to the imagination.

"Anyway," he said hastily, turning back towards the door again. "There's the saddlebags – once you've got everything packed up, just leave them on the landing outside and I'll take care of them." He beat a hasty retreat before Gemyn decided to start undressing again. Once outside, he shook his head and grinned to himself. He hadn't even begun to imagine how unbelievably…adorable she would look in that tunic. The fact that it was much too big for her made it even more endearing. The image of her smooth shoulder, bared by the tunic falling down as she had leapt up to face him, stuck in his head and he found himself wondering what her skin felt like. He imagined that it would make the Zora tunic feel as prickly as a thornbush.

* * *

Gemyn was blushing furiously at her own stupidity as she folded each tunic into as tiny a square as she could make it and packed them tightly together into the saddlebags Link had brought. How could she have been so silly, trying on his clothes like a little girl playing dress-up? Link already thought her an immature little idiot, and then she had to go and do a thing like that!

She stopped suddenly, frowning. Why did she care what Link thought of her, anyway? She surely had no high opinion of him, after all. _Well, we do have to travel together. It's not that I want him to _like _me, but of course it'll make things easier if he doesn't think I'm an idiot…so long as he doesn't think I was trying it on because I like _him_!_

She refused to acknowledge any other reason for caring what Link thought of her. She had finished packing the clothes into the saddlebags, altogether pleased with herself; the wool of the tunics was thick and did not squash easily, yet she had managed to stuff everything into roughly half of the bag. She hefted the bags up, surprised at how heavy they were, and lugged them through the front door. Link had said to leave them on the landing; she was more than happy to. She did not fancy trying to haul them down the ladder all by herself when she could barely carry them on level flooring.

She dropped the bags as instructed and turned to cast a critical eye around the one-roomed house; everything was in order. The bed was made, the trunk had been shut and latched, and the fireplace was clean except for the Gerudo garment she had tossed in it. She didn't trust herself to make the flint work to light it; with her luck, she'd send sparks flying everywhere and burn the house down. Making a mental note to ask Saria to make sure it was burnt, she started out across the village in search of Link or Saria when she stopped dead, frowning. Ever so slowly, she turned back towards the tree house and gaped at what stood before her.

A beautiful mare with the reddest coat she had ever seen on a horse stood at the foot of the tree, saddled and bridled, looking at her with a curious glint in her big brown eyes. "Epona!" Gemyn breathed, stepping towards the mare. "But…we left you at Lake Hylia! How did you get here?" Epona whickered, tossing her head, and pranced backwards. Gemyn's breath caught; she had never cared much for horses before, but looking at Epona she understood why so many people considered horses beautiful and majestic. "I don't know if horses have royalty, but if they did you'd be a…a queen." Gemyn said slowly, then shook herself; she was talking to a _horse_. But Epona looked as if she understood, and lowered her head in what Gemyn could only consider a bow.

She stepped right up to Epona and held out her hand uncertainly; were horses like dogs? Did you have to let them sniff your hand? Link had said that the key to controlling a horse was confidence. The second they sensed you didn't know what you were doing, they'd take over and you would just be along for the ride. But Epona was so grand that Gemyn thought that she wouldn't _want _to control her. It wouldn't be right…it would be like trying to control Lia.

Epona chuffed at Gemyn's hand and moved her lips delicately over the outstretched palm, looking for a treat. "Oh," Gemyn said once she realized what Epona was doing. "I haven't got – I'll go get you something - " She dug in her pocket, coming up with a bit of cheese. Did horses eat cheese? Gingerly, she put the cheese in her palm as Link had shown her how to do. Epona sniffed at it somewhat suspiciously, then scooped it up with her soft lips and swallowed it. Delighted, Gemyn reached up and began stroking Epona's velvety nose. Epona closed one eye, enjoying the attention. She chuffed pleasedly.

After a moment, Gemyn pulled her hand away. "I've got to go find Link and Saria," she told the mare. "I'll be back – and I'll bring more cheese!" Epona neighed loudly, arching her neck. It was almost like she was telling Gemyn to hurry. Gemyn stumbled backwards away from Epona, not wanting to turn.

She caught sight of Saria outside of the village store, directing the Kokiri merchant to fill water skins and wrap up cheese, bread and dried meat. "Hello," Saria said as Gemyn came to a stop beside her. "All finished with the clothing?"

"Yes," Gemyn said, fighting the urge to blush. Surely Link wouldn't have told Saria how silly she'd been, trying on that tunic. "Where's Link?"

"He is at the smithy, getting a knife made for you." Saria replied.

Gemyn blinked. "A – a knife?" Surely she had heard Saria wrong.

"Yes, a knife." Saria repeated. "You cannot go wandering across Hyrule without some means of defending yourself.

"But I don't know anything about – about fighting!"

"Then you will learn," Saria said unfeelingly. "Gemyn, surely you did not expect that Link and Lia would look after you."

Gemyn was silent. She didn't want to admit it, but she supposed she _had _expected that they would do all of the killing, if killing needed to be done. She recalled with a shiver how Lia had dispatched those guards the night they'd escaped the Fortress; she could never do something like that! She couldn't even kill a spider, much less a person! "I have to go find Link," she said. Without waiting for a reply from Saria, she set off towards the smithy. Link was standing just inside with a dagger in his hands, discussing its merits with the blacksmith.

"Ah, Gemyn, there you are," Link said, turning to face her with the five-inch-long dagger in his hands. "This is for you."

Gemyn stared at the dagger, all of her misgivings firing up and making her feel dizzy. "I – I can't," she said slowly.

Link frowned. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"I've never killed anything before!" Gemyn wailed. "I can't carry a weapon! I don't even know how to use it!"

Link felt a smile forming at the corners of his mouth, and bit it down. "Gemyn, no one is expecting you to kill anyone," he said comfortingly. "But for you to go around without any protection whatsoever is not a good idea."

"But - "

"Gemyn, there are people in Hyrule who are looking for you. If something happens to me or Lia, or we get separated, do you really want to be left with no way to defend yourself?" Link asked. He could see Gemyn's face growing hard, and sighed inwardly. When she wanted to be stubborn, it was like trying to tell the sky not to be blue! "Just carry it. Use it, don't use it…whatever you want. But at least carry it, so you have the _option _to use it if you ever decide you want to. Please?"

Gemyn pursed her lips. She didn't want to admit it, but Link was right. Even though it would likely do her no good if someone tried to attack her when Link and Lia weren't around to help, it would be better than nothing. "Fine," she said, taking it from him. The handle had a nice feel to it, and the weight felt comfortable in her hand. "Where do I…?"

Link handed her a leather belt with a sheath. "Here," he said. "You wear this, and the knife goes in here."

Gemyn fastened the belt around her waist. The sheath rested just over her right hip, in perfect position for her to quickly and easily draw the knife. "Alright," she said, once the knife was safely stowed in its sheath. "I've packed up all the clothes - " she flushed ever so slightly at the word, and Link's raised eyebrow told her he had not missed it – "-and Saria has got meat and bread and cheese wrapped up for us, should we go fit it into the saddlebags?"

"Yes, let's." Link said his goodbyes to the blacksmith and followed Gemyn out of the smithy. She walked quickly, forcing him to lengthen his strides to catch up. "Look, Gemyn, are you really upset with me about this morning? I said I'm sorry."

Gemyn sighed. "It's fine," she said tersely. "I'm not mad. Let's just – get ready to go. I left the saddlebags on the landing, they were too heavy for me to lift down the ladder."

"That's fine," Link said. "I can do it. We'll bring Epona and the saddlebags to Saria instead of the other way around, it'll be easier."

They reached the tree house and Gemyn bounded forward to pet Epona. "Gemyn!" Link shouted. "Get away from her! She's very temperamental, she only lets me - " He stopped dead as Epona lowered her nose to Gemyn's outstretched hand and nibbled on it affectionately. "I'll be damned," he breathed. "Gemyn, how did you…?"

"How did I what?" Gemyn asked, stroking Epona's nose.

"Epona, she's so temperamental – she never lets _anyone _touch her except me!" Link spluttered.

Gemyn shrugged. "I didn't do anything. I just let her smell my hand, and then I gave her a bit of cheese I had in my pocket…"

Link shook his head, amazed at what he was seeing. "I'll…get the saddlebags." He scampered up the ladder, hefted the leather bags over his shoulder, and climbed carefully back down. "Step away for a moment while I fix these on," he instructed Gemyn, who complied silently. He threw the bags over Epona's back; Epona chuffed and moved around in irritation, but held still after her initial jump. Link lashed the saddlebags on tightly, then gave Epona a quick ear scratch. "Good girl," he said soothingly, and reached for her bridle to lead her off towards Saria.

"So how did she get here, anyway?" Gemyn asked, falling in step beside him.

Link hesitated; Gemyn did not seem to know much of magic, and what she had seen she didn't seem to believe. "My ocarina," he said finally. "It can…do things. Like how it transported us here, from the Fortress?" Gemyn nodded, her eyes on him. "I can use it to call Epona to me, wherever I am. So even though I left her at Lake Hylia when we left for the Fortress, I can call her to me with my ocarina."

Gemyn digested this. It seemed rather far-fetched; she wasn't even sure she believed his tale about using his ocarina, or whatever it was called, to bring them to the Kokiri Forest. If Lia hadn't corroborated his story, she probably would have outright accused him of making it up. Still, this was a strange world…maybe magic _did _exist. The Gerudos could certainly use it, in any case. And it would certainly explain how she had been transported from the barn to the middle of the desert in the blink of an eye.

Then something occurred to her. She frowned. "So, if you can use your ocarina to transport us, why do we have to walk to this mountain?"

"We're going to Kakariko Village," Link corrected. "There's a transportation pedestal in the Death Mountain Crater, but it's so hot up there we'd die in seconds. We're going to go to the Gorons first to get you and Lia tunics – did you see my red one, when you were packing? It will protect you from the worst of the heat up there. But without them, there's no point in transporting the three of us up there if you're just going to die in thirty seconds."

"So what about Kakariko Village, then?" Gemyn persisted. "Isn't there a spot there we could transport to?"

"I – no," Link said tightly, not looking at her. He was lying; she was sure of it. Her scowl deepened.

"Why are you lying to me?" she demanded.

"I'm not lying!" Link flared, flipping his golden hair out of his eyes and turning to look at her with his piercing blue eyes. "Don't you think if there was a transport point in Kakariko Village, I would have suggested we use it instead of bothering with all this?"

"Not if you didn't think of it and didn't want to admit it," Gemyn countered.

Link turned ever so slightly pink. "I'm not that prideful," he said scathingly. "There's no transport point in Kakariko Village. End of discussion!" They had reached Saria. She looked at Link and Gemyn with coolly quizzical eyes, but said nothing to indicate she had heard their argument.

"I've put together enough food to last you three days," she said, gesturing to the meat and cheese wrapped in waxy leaf paper sitting on a large stump beside her. "It should hardly take you that long to reach Kakariko Village, but just in case…." Four large water skins slumped on the ground beside the stump as well.

"Thank you, Saria." Link said, already stuffing food into the saddlebags. "I can't tell you how much this means to us."

"Yes," came Lia's voice, and the three turned to find Lia standing beside Epona, looking as strong and healthy as she ever did. "Saria, you have done so much for us. I will not forget your kindness." She knelt at Saria's feet in the Gerudo gesture of obedience, forehead brushing the grass. "I am in your debt."

"Rise, Lia," Saria said gently. "I will not allow you to bow to me. You are not a slave here, but an equal among equals."

Lia straightened with more grace than Gemyn had in her little finger. She felt like one of the lumpy, bulging saddlebags in comparison. Saria was holding out golden leaves to each of them. "These proclaim you as kindred to the Kokiri," she said. "None will bar you entry or exit to the Forest so long as you have this." She pressed one of the leaves into Gemyn's hand and smiled at her. "You are welcome in the Forest so long as I am the Sage here," she promised. There was no golden leaf for Link; Gemyn supposed he already had one. Sure enough, she spied a golden leaf pinned to his cloak. She imitated him, as did Lia.

"Thank you," Gemyn said awkwardly. How did she say goodbye to someone that she had spent so much time steadily disliking? "I – I know I haven't always been very – nice to you…but…thank you."

They began a slow procession towards the bridge that led out of the Forest; Link went first, holding tight to Epona's bridle, followed by Gemyn and Lia. Saria walked behind them, and the rest of the Kokiri behind her. It was like a parade; everyone following, yelling and shouting goodbyes and waving frantically. They stepped onto the bridge, and the Kokiri stayed behind, continuing to call goodbyes. As they reached the other side, Gemyn turned for one last look at the Forest: Saria stood at the front of the crowd, one hand raised in a peaceful salute.

Then there was a flash of sunlight and they were out of the Forest, standing on a hard-packed dirt path with rolling green hills spreading out before them.

"We head northeast," Link said, pointing. "With luck, we'll reach the river by nightfall. That's where we'll camp."


End file.
